What changes will the new law on mandatory labeling of animals lead to?
From September 1, 2022, the Federal Law on Mandatory Labeling of Animals may come into force in RUSSIA. The State Duma has already adopted the relevant bill, which has been technically amended with the replacement of the term “identification” for “marking”, in the first reading. We collected comments from experts who told what pitfalls they see in connection with the new transformations, and whether innovations will lead to additional costs for large and small dairy businesses.
What is the point of the question
What has changed in the law
According to the explanatory note, the bill amends the Law of the Russian Federation of May 14, 1993 No. 4979-1 "On Veterinary Medicine". They are aimed at regulating relations related to the labeling and registration of animals, determining the zoosanitary status of facilities on whose territory animals are kept and bred, animals are slaughtered, production, processing, storage of controlled goods, and the exercise of delegated powers in the field of veterinary medicine.
In particular, the bill introduced the concepts of marking and recording animals. The provisions of the current legislation of the Russian Federation do not allow for the traceability of goods controlled by the state veterinary service, which entails the impossibility of promptly identifying the source of the spread of animal diseases, including those common to humans and animals, in the event of their outbreaks. Information about marked animals will be contained in a single database of the Federal State Veterinary Information System (FSIS). The norms proposed by the draft law regulating the implementation of marking and accounting of animals will allow specialists of the state veterinary service to quickly identify sources that have a negative impact on the epizootic situation or food safety in order to eliminate them.
The provisions of the current Law (Article 2.5) have already established the obligation to carry out identification and registration, in connection with which the registration of animals is already being carried out on the territory of Russia. Marking and registration of cattle is carried out in 79 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and in 41 subjects registration is carried out electronically.
Only technical amendments were made to the draft law with the replacement of the term "identification" with the term "marking" (a corresponding change to the Federal Law of October 6, 1999 No. 184-FZ "On the General Principles of Organization of Legislative (Representative) and Executive Bodies of State Power of the Subjects of the Russian Federation "). it is also established that the registration of animals will be carried out by submitting information about marked animals to the FSIS in accordance with the Procedure for submitting information to the federal state information system in the field of veterinary medicine and obtaining information from it (approved by order of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia dated June 30, 2017 No. 318) .
Why technical changes were made
Technical corrections are made due to the fact that identification means "identification", respectively, this process is continuous and can be carried out by anyone (identification of an animal with information about it). In this case, marking is the application to the body of an animal, fixing on the body of an animal or introducing into the body of an animal visual or mixed (combination of visual and electronic) marking means and is the responsibility of the owners of the animals. Animal owners have the right to independently choose the type of marking means from the types of marking means provided for by the veterinary rules for marking and recording animals, depending on the type of animal.
Taking into account that the registration of animals is also carried out by economic entities independently or with the involvement of third-party commercial organizations, the draft law provides for an alternative in terms of determining the circle of persons who carry out such registration. Thus, the registration of animals will be carried out free of charge by the following categories of persons: authorized persons of bodies and organizations included in the system of the State Veterinary Service of the Russian Federation; certified specialists who are not authorized persons of bodies and organizations included in the system of the State Veterinary Service of the Russian Federation.
The cases in which these persons are entitled to record will be established by the Veterinary Rules for Labeling and Recording. Taking into account that the registration of animals by the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and their subordinate organizations is currently carried out within the budgetary allocations provided for the implementation of activities, the allocation of additional financial resources for the implementation of the provisions of the draft law will not be required.
How much is it
The explanatory note indicates the estimated cost of marking means and services for their establishment. The price of a plastic tag is 14-20 rubles per unit, and its installation is 50-70 rubles. A subcutaneous microchip will cost 90-140 rubles per unit, and the service for installing it will cost 50-100 rubles. The cost of 20II1542.doc bolus will be 150 - 200 rubles, the service for its administration will be 100 - 150 rubles. The cost of tattooing and branding is 200 - 500 rubles. The price of a ring is 5-10 rubles, and ringing is 20-50 rubles. The collar will cost 150 - 250 rubles per unit. The indicated cost of marking services is calculated for third-party recipients of the service, marking of animals on farms will be carried out by employees of these farms. When marking with the involvement of organizations,
About labeling rules
The veterinary rules for marking and recording animals will establish the procedure for marking animals, the types and properties of the marking means used, the procedure for generating and assigning numbers of marking means, the list of information required for recording animals, and the deadlines for their submission. Establishing an exhaustive list of marking means in the draft law is redundant. The above is also due to the constantly developing information technologies, in connection with which the types of electronic means can be improved. The procedure for recording animals, the list of animal species subject to individual or group marking and recording, cases of individual or group marking and recording of animals, as well as the timing of the recording of animals will be established by the Government of the Russian Federation.
Taking into account that the provisions of the draft law are aimed at ensuring the traceability of livestock products in order to implement the principle of end-to-end control "from the field to the counter", the primary link of which is the registration of animals, animals that are not related to farm animals and owned by citizens will not be subject to registration. The bill establishes that the registration of animals is carried out within the time limits established by the Government of the Russian Federation, but not earlier than January 1, 2022, while animals marked before the provisions of the bill came into force, as well as animals marked outside of Russia and imported into its territory, are re-labeled are not subject.
Zoosanitary status of objects
The bill regulates the procedure for determining the zoosanitary status of objects. In this case, objects will be understood as land plots, buildings, premises, structures, structures, with the use of which individuals and legal entities carry out activities for keeping and breeding animals, slaughtering animals, producing, processing, storing controlled goods.
The determination of the zoosanitary status is made depending on the level of zoosanitary protection by the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the field of veterinary medicine. At the same time, the bill provides that the assignment of objects to unprotected objects, objects of low, medium or high level of zoosanitary protection is carried out at the request of the owners of these objects exclusively on a voluntary basis.
The bill contains mandatory requirements, the assessment of compliance with which is carried out within the framework of state veterinary supervision, when considering cases of administrative offenses. The alleged liability for violation of mandatory requirements is provided for in Article 10.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
Expert opinions
Vladimir Pulin, General DIRECTOR of SHP Novomarkovskoye, Molvest Group, in his commentary, said that the company was connected to the identification system from the first day of work in the livestock industry. All animals are labeled, identified and are in the database of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, as the Novomarkovskoe SHP is a breeding reproducer.
The Director General noted that now we are talking about creating a single database for all categories of farm animals: breeding, commercial, and so on. This path has already been passed by the SPH, since the accounting system for breeding animals has existed for more than one year.
- I do not consider it possible in this context to talk about difficulties and costs, since initially we tried to build our work as correctly, technologically and transparently as possible and were ready to invest effort and money. These are necessary things that should be in production, - said Vladimir Pulin.
In his opinion, the main purpose of these amendments is to control the movement of animals in order to prevent infectious diseases in livestock. For Novomarkovsky, the new system, in essence, will not change anything. The new rules may cause problems for medium and small farms, which, of course, will have to restructure their work.
Stanislav Sankeev, Chairman of the Council of the Association of Farmers of the Ulyanovsk Region (AKKOR), believes that without an explanatory letter to the Draft Law, it is difficult to figure out what it will be like in the end. If the labeling of cattle provides for a special identification code, as in the case of labeling dairy products, then this will require additional costs from the farmer, as additional equipment, stickers, and additional personnel will be required.
- Small farms do not have an easy life anyway, because the farmer is a busy person, he is also the HEAD of a peasant farm, an economist, a lawyer, a tractor driver, and so on. More and more work with documents is imposed on him. He is on the farm all day, he came home to rest, but instead he needs to sit down for papers, but when will he live? Sankeev comments.
In fact, the identification of animals is already happening through the state system "Mercury", where, in addition to tracking the quality of products, tracking of livestock is provided. A tag with a number is hung on the animal, which is fixed in the "Mercury".
“I don’t understand why any new norms should be introduced,” says Stanislav Sankeev. “Mercury already has everything. Everything is monitored there anyway - all information is stored from the birth of an animal to its slaughter, the sale of MEAT, plus quarantines for cattle. And this program will not allow you to issue a veterinary certificate from a zone that is under quarantine. Even personal subsidiary farms can register a site in Mercury and officially acquire livestock officially registered in this system.
The expert recalled that there were cases when private farms bought an animal from the quarantine zone for “cash”, it grazed nearby with the farmer’s herd, and this led to the outbreak. In such a situation, according to Stanislav Sankeev, neither the "Mercury" system, nor the marking of cattle will protect the herd from infection.
- It is difficult for me to say whether such a marking system will oblige private traders, and whether it will improve the situation, - explained the chairman of the regional council of AKKOR. - But for conscientious farmers, this will be an additional financial burden, albeit a small one, but it will affect the increase in the cost of production. In addition, the farmer will have additional work, and there is not enough time anyway. And if you forgot to do something, then the regulatory authorities will fine you, and there the fines are serious, and even the farm can be closed.
Stanislav Sankeev also said that the situation with the purchase prices for raw MILK in the Ulyanovsk region is “slightly improving”, which, in his opinion, is due to the restriction of supplies of palm oil and powdered milk to Russia due to the geopolitical situation.
If earlier large milk processors did not want to deal with small farmers and strictly dictated their purchase prices, now, due to a shortage of raw materials, dairy producers have begun to compete with each other: they themselves find small farmers, cooperate with them on an ongoing basis and give them a “good” price for raw milk.
“When processors collect milk from small farmers, selling prices range from 26 to 36 rubles per liter, depending on the volume of raw materials and the distance you need to travel,” the expert explained. - A farmer whose milk yield is at least 2 tons per day sells milk at a good price - 33-34 rubles per liter, even if it is carried far. And we attribute this to the fact that it has become more difficult to bring powdered milk and palm oil into the country.
Azamat Saginbaev, Executive Director of the Republican Chamber of Dairy and Combined Breeds of Cattle, Kazakhstan, described how cattle are identified in his country:
- In Kazakhstan, the identification of farm animals is regulated by the Order of the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated January 30, 2015 No. 7-1/68 “On Approval of the Rules for the Identification of Farm Animals”.
All farm animals located on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan are subject to identification. The assignment of individual numbers to farm animals is carried out sequentially according to the emission of individual numbers, carried out by the processing center separately for each region.
After assigning individual numbers, information (owner, animal breed, sex and date of birth, etc.) is entered into the database for the identification of farm animals. All expenses for the identification were carried out at the expense of the state.
The identification covers the entire number of cows, which totals 4.2 million heads as of 01/01/2022, including 2.5 million dairy cows. The total number of cattle as of 01.01.2022 amounted to 8.2 million heads, of which 4.8 million heads are dairy. Preference is given to Simmental and Holstein cattle.
From January to March 2022, 988,000 tons of milk were produced in Kazakhstan, of which 114,000 tons were produced by agricultural enterprises, 200,000 tons of milk were farms, farms, and entrepreneurs, and 674,000 tons were households.
С января по декабрь 2021 года было произведено 6,2 млн тонн молока, из них 510 тыс тонн -сельхозпредприятиями, 1,3 млн тонн молока - КХ, ФХ, ИП и 4,4 млн тонн – хозяйствами населения. С января по декабрь 2020 года объемы производства молока достигли п 6 млн тонн, в том числе 463 тыс тонн -сельхозпредприятиями, 1,230 млн тонн молока - КХ, ФХ, ИП и 4,310 млн тонн – хозяйствами населения.