Certain product categories, according to the law, must undergo mandatory veterinary certification. According to its results, a paper certificate is issued on the conformity of the quality of the goods with the established norms and requirements. Meanwhile, the issue of switching to electronic veterinary certification has been discussed for quite some time. Further consider the pros and cons of the new system.
General information
The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance has long been planning to replace paper certification with electronic. For this, a special Internet application has been developed. It is called the GIS "Mercury".
The application can be opened directly in the browser and specify the necessary product information in order to subsequently receive a certificate.
Together with the GIS "Mercury " will be launched and other auxiliary systems "Vesta", "Argus", "Cerberus". The latter will be used to track and record legally significant transactions. The Vesta system is designed to record laboratory test results. The Argus application is already being applied in practice for obtaining permits for the import of products.
The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance suggests that the new procedure will significantly reduce red tape and speed up the issuance of documentation. In addition, interested parties will not have to carry paper certificates with them, it is enough to know the permit number. According to it, the authorized bodies will be able to check the type of product and origin.
Do you need a change?
Many manufacturers are wondering why the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service needed to change the rules. Actually, such a question is quite logical, since there are many gaps in the current domestic legislation.
In EU countries , certification is carried out to ensure public safety. Laboratory studies are conducted to identify and prevent dangerous diseases. The WTO believes that the certificate is necessary solely to protect against infections.
Russian legislation does not indicate anywhere why a certificate is needed. There is no normative act fixing the list of unreliable suppliers or regions in which epidemics in farm animals are highly likely to occur.
Meanwhile, in Russia there are GOSTs, sanitary and epidemiological rules and requirements, and the Law governing the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population is also in force. Accordingly, it is a mistake to say that veterinary certification (electronic or paper) does not make sense.
Web Application Specifics
It is assumed that the electronic veterinary certification system will work as follows. To obtain a certificate, the user must log in. This action involves the introduction of information about the consignment. If the products are released in the Russian Federation, this data is sufficient. If the goods are of foreign manufacture, it is additionally necessary to have a certificate issued in the country of origin of the goods.
The application not only collects data, but also tracks them. This is necessary so that a new certificate is issued only confirmation of previously entered information. Thus, tricking the system is problematic.
If an error is issued in the issuance of a certificate, the document can be quickly withdrawn.
Subsystems
They are especially important for dairy producers. Electronic veterinary certification is provided for imported goods and products moving across the territory of Russia. In the first case, the subsystem "temporary storage warehouse" is used, in the second - "State Veterinary Expertise".
Meanwhile, the GIS is not yet fully formed. In it, in particular, there are no modules necessary for entering data on raw materials and products.
With the trial implementation of electronic veterinary certification, the developers were unable to establish the possibility of integrating the application into automated dairy systems. At the same time, as noted by representatives of the National Union of Manufacturers, there is an insufficient level of automation in the industry.
Regulatory support
Discussions about the advisability of the introduction, the rules for organizing electronic veterinary certification were very lively. In 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture finally issued an order. He approved the procedure for processing electronic documentation ( Order 281).
Electronic veterinary certification must be carried out in accordance with the rules provided for in this order. Meanwhile, manufacturers and experts note that the content of the adopted act has significant differences from the project that was discussed with the business community. I must say that during these discussions, manufacturers put forward a lot of rational proposals that could prevent the emergence of controversial issues.
Processors Responsibility
Until now, documents in the dairy industry were drawn up exclusively on raw materials. It is assumed that electronic veterinary certification will be mandatory for processors.
The document, in particular, is needed for milk (including dried milk), cottage cheese, cheese, butter. In such a situation, there is a risk of duplication of functions of two departments - Rosselkhoznadzor and Rospotrebnadzor.
Problems
If we talk about the pros and cons of electronic veterinary certification , then manufacturers and processors so far see only flaws. But if the procedure for obtaining a document is already familiar to manufacturers, and it will not be difficult for them to switch to an electronic format for interacting with authorities, then the processors will have a lot of problems.
The difficulties are primarily due to the fact that the developers of electronic veterinary certification did not take into account a number of features of the activities of these entities.
To obtain a document, processors need to indicate the source of raw materials for each batch. Many of them accept raw materials from several manufacturers. Often, the number of suppliers reaches 100. Many processors, fulfilling instructions from the regional administration, collect raw materials from small farmers. This allows you to support the agricultural industry.
To carry a separate tank for each of the suppliers is, of course, unprofitable. Accordingly, at the stage of collecting raw materials, it is mixed. It is simply impossible to indicate the source as a result.
The factories have a lot of lots of products. Even with a small number of suppliers of raw materials, the company will have to collect an impressive number of certificates for each batch.
In addition, to obtain the document, the processor must indicate the place of sale of the products. Subjects do not always have such information.
Cost
Formally, there is no charge for registration. In practice, the processing enterprises will have to turn to competent specialists for help, so that they take up the whole procedure.
As many business entities believe, the cost of production may increase by at least 1-1.5%. For example, a calculation was made for an enterprise with a processing capacity of 200 tons / day. For the year, the plant will have to spend about 10 million rubles. to introduce a certification system. These costs will negatively affect the cost of production - it will increase by 5%.
When will the system work?
It is possible that never. Officials postponed the introduction of the system until 2018. However, this does not mean that processors will have to draw up paper documents. According to Alexander Tkachev (head of the Ministry of Agriculture), these entities can be exempted from the obligation to receive a certificate.
Additional nuances
Despite the fact that the introduction of electronic certification has been postponed, regional authorities are already actively preparing for this procedure.
From 01.01. In 2018, an expanded list of products for which it is necessary to draw up a document will operate. The list includes:
- Finished dairy products.
- Canned and prepared products from fish, meat offal and meat.
- Pasta with fish / meat filling.
- Prepared soups, broths and other products containing raw materials of animal origin.
Electronic certification will allow to trace the movement of products from the place of collection and production to delivery to the final consumer. At the same time, it is possible to search for and remove from circulation low-quality and dangerous goods.
It is worth saying that the accompanying veterinary documentation is entitled to draw up not only employees of the state veterinary service, but also specialists in the field of veterinary medicine, certified in the prescribed manner, representatives of enterprises and individual entrepreneurs.
An electronic certificate must be issued not only at processing enterprises or wholesale and retail bases, but also retail stores, catering chains (canteens, cafes, etc.), kindergartens, schools, hospitals. The document must be paid off by an authorized person.
Today, the activity of entrepreneurs in resolving issues of registration in the GIS "Mercury" is noted. So, in the Kirov region, about 400 legal entities and individual entrepreneurs have already applied for access. However, as the state inspector of the veterinary supervision department notes, this figure corresponds to only 10% of the total number of registered entities conducting entrepreneurial activities in the field of production and sale of livestock products.
Conclusion
In order to avoid problems with regulatory organizations, regional authorities strongly recommend that entrepreneurs get access to GIS in the coming months. In some regions, the implementation of programs for the transition to electronic certification will begin in October this year. By the end of the year, a number of entities plan to ban the reception and movement of products without an electronic certificate.
The management of enterprises involved in the turnover of agricultural products should take comprehensive measures to introduce electronic certification. The list of measures, among other things, includes training employees to work in GIS, equipping workstations with necessary technical means (a computer with Internet access). The accounting system must be integrated with the GIS through a special universal gateway.