Belarus checks labels after Putin’s statement
Belarusian producers claim that wrong labels appeared due to negligence and that there was no foreign export.
Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned the problem of foreign export of European goods disguised as Belarusian or Ukrainian products during the recent summit in Minsk. “Look: the label says that the product was produced in Belarus. Remove the label and you can see that there is a Polish label there,” he said demonstrating photos.
The newspaper SB.Belarus Today has investigated the issue. Farmers from Mushroom Country situated in Baranavichy District explained the problem. They produce champignons. However, they buy wrapping from distribution networks. Old labels get removed. However, some of their workers was too lazy to do it.
One of their buyers, a Lida entrepreneur, started selling their champignons to Nizhniy Novgorod restaurants. When Russian frontier gaurs checked the products, they found ‘EU labels’ on them. It was negligence and there was no foreign export, the edition claimed.
Poland only supplies mushroom spawn to the Baranavichy enterprise, the newspaper notes. The champignons are produced in Belarus (200 tons a month).
It has been decided to refuse from reusing wrapping due to the scandal. Only Belarusian wrapping will be used for mushrooms from now on.
