Due to the new law on the regulation of the alcohol market, importers will be forced to stop supplying wines with protected geographical names from Europe, and this will lead to a shortage of them in the country, warned Markus Ederer
The amendments to the legislation on alcohol turnover adopted in Russia may result in a shortage of wines for the residents of the country, EU Ambassador Markus Ederer warned at a briefing, RBC correspondent reports.
“Russian importers will stop or have stopped importing goods with protected geographical designations, as this does not comply with the new law, and thus they cannot be sold according to [hellip;] existing declarations of conformity,” he said during a briefing on Thursday, July 8.
According to Ederer, the EU is concerned about the measures taken by Russia and Brussels will continue to study their consequences. “We will also assess the compliance of Russia’s recent decisions with its obligations under the WTO,” he added.
He added that this looks like a “weakly hidden” continuation of the food embargo, which costs Russian consumers at least 445 billion rubles a year. Ederer said that Russian consumers will suffer from the new amendments, and called the changes “a shot in the foot”.
Earlier, the rating agency “National Credit Ratings” in a study “Russian winemaking” warned that in 2021–2022, wholesale prices for Russian wines could grow by an average of 15–20%. This is due to both inflation and higher prices for raw materials-grapes.
Amendments to the law ” On the regulation of alcoholic beverages “(171-FZ) ” the main document regulating the alcohol market of Russia, President Vladimir Putin approved on July 2, they officially entered into force on July 6.
The law introduced new concepts of “Russian champagne” and “cognac of Russia”. Even during the development of the draft law, the Federal Service for Alcohol Regulation (Rosalkogolregulirovanie) explained that in Cyrillic terms define the type of product, and not the name of the place of origin of the goods or a geographical indication.
According to the regulations adopted in the EU, only sparkling wines produced in the French Champagne region (Champagne AOC, Appeal d ’Origine Contrô lée) can have the name “champagne” according to a certain technology and from certain grape varieties.
The greatest resonance in the amendments was caused by the need to remove the word “champagne”from imported bottles. Definition of sparkling wines (champagne)», which was previously used by importing companies, as a result of the amendments, changed to« sparkling wine, including Russian champagne & raquo;. Now, on the counter label of the bottle and in the declarations of conformity of products, manufacturers of imported alcohol must abandon the word “champagne”and write ” sparkling wine”.
The company Moet Hennessy even announced the suspension of the shipment of champagne wines to Russia. The company’s specialists interpreted this rule as a ban on the use of the word “champagne” in relation to their products. The French Champagne Committee (Comite Champagne) has called for a temporary suspension of wine supplies to Russia, although Moet Hennessy has already agreed to label its drinks supplied to the country as “sparkling wine”.
“Cognac of Russia” according to the new law is a product made 100% from grapes grown in Russia, which should be displayed on the label. In addition, abbreviations are introduced to determine the aging of the drink.
- KV & mdash; aged cognac made from distillates with an aging of at least six years;
- KVVC & mdash; cognac aged of the highest quality with an aging of at least eight years;
- CS & mdash; old cognac with an extract of at least ten years;
- OS & mdash; cognac is very old, aged at least 20 years.
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