Gov’t intends to set new standards for bread producers
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, September 9
Allegedly from January 1, 2016 the Georgian food producers and flour importers will have to meet higher standards with producing and packaging.
The statement concerning the new regulations has been made by Georgia’s Minister of Agriculture, Otar Danelia, for the Georgian Kviris Palitra newspaper, as, according to him, the Georgian products should be in compliance with European standards.
“In case if we detect any violation and cheating of consumers, the producer will be made accountable.
“When the regalement is in force all bread producers will have to obey it, otherwise they will have to quit the market,” Minister of Agriculture Otar Danelia said, noting that the Ministry completed the elaboration of criteria for the bread regalement last week.
The Minister stated that different producers should offer different quantity of dread.
“All bread producers now try to sell as much bread as possible. There are no rules for healthy competition that will also be regulated, as the unhealthy situation and the producers’ wish to offer large quantity of the product damages the bread quality,” Danelia said.
The Minister claimed that there are food producers that use unhealthy additional substances in bread that are never indicated on the wrapping.
“In many cases there is no wrapping at all,” Danelia said.
The Minister stated that the new standards would not raise the bread price as the harvest in Georgia and in major flour exporter countries was excellent this year.
Danelia mentioned that one of the top reasons of bad wheat harvest in Georgia was unproductive seeds.
“There is a special governmental programme that distributes healthy seeds to farmers that already provided positive results. Also we are trying to introduce wheat culture to the Georgian regions, where it has never been tested,” Danelia said.
