• Mandatory monthly stock reporting for agricultural producers, warehouses and processors in the food industry.
The obligation to report monthly stocks for producers and traders in the food industry is contained in The Draft Emergency Ordinance initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
According to the act submitted to the Government of Romania, this measure is necessary to "ensure the establishment, in the shortest possible time, of centralization mechanisms and permanent operative knowledge of stocks of agricultural and food products, aimed at ensuring, in a unitary and professional manner, the security food security, the defense of the life and health of the population, during the occurrence of emergency situations, generated by the whole spectrum of threats, epidemics and other events generating multiple victims: natural calamities, military conflicts, disasters, which allow the rapid restoration of the state of normality. "
The importance of a risk reduction plan
The same regulatory act emphasizes "the importance of developing a plan to reduce risks related to food security and establishing a crisis management system regarding the response capability specific to the agricultural sector and the food industry". The situations we have faced recently, both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict, are taken as an example.
In this context, it is necessary to adopt a legislative framework designed to ensure the necessary information regarding the quantities of agricultural and food products existing on the territory of Romania, in order to prevent interruptions in the food supply of the population.
Who reports stocks
Within this Emergency Ordinance, the term "stock" represents a set of agricultural and food products under the management of an operator in the agricultural sector and the food industry, at the time of reporting, in the form of raw materials or finished products intended for production or sale.
Agricultural producers, warehouses, processors in the food industry and traders of goods from the two sectors have the obligation to declare the stocks held for the following products:
Stocks that are reported
- vegetables fruits,
– cereals and cereal-based products,
– oilseeds and oilseed-based products,
- forage legumes,
– certified seeds: cereals, rice, oleaginous and proteinaceous,
– meat and meat products, with a shelf life of more than 10 days, including canned meat and mixed meats,
– milk and milk products,
– milling and bakery products,
- processed, processed, preserved products from vegetables and fruits,
– fats and oils,
– water, including natural mineral water, spring water and all other packaged bottled water,
- rice,
– aromatic plants, salt and spices,
– teas,
– sugar,
– honey,
– yeast.
Who is exempt?
Traders who are sanitary and veterinary registered and who, for food safety, have sales structures with an area of up to 400 square meters (excluding spaces intended for storage, keeping, production of goods, offices and annexes), are exempt from the obligation to declare stocks, street traders, traders who carry out public food service activities, as well as traders who carry out trading activities in public areas.
Exceptions to the obligation to provide data on stock records are also made by operators carrying out agricultural production activities, who have in stock on the last day of each month quantities up to:
- vegetables, including potatoes - 10.000 kg;
– fruits – 10.000 kg;
- cereals - 25.000 kg;
- oilseeds - 20.000 kg;
- fodder legumes - 10.000 kg;
– aromatic plants – 300 kg;
- honey - 50 kg.
Stock records will be reported by the 15th of each month for the data valid for the last day of the previous month.
If the stocks are not reported, the fines are from 500.000 to 1.000.000 lei.
In case of reporting erroneous data, the fines are from 50.000 to 250.000 lei.
Minister Adrian Chesnoiu's statement
"It is very important to know what are the food stocks that Romania has, to be able to take advantage of certain opportunities that arise, because in complicated times, you know, especially during the crisis, opportunities also appear and then it is very important that these opportunities should be exploited by Romanian producers", said the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Adrian Chesnoiu.
He also adds: "It will be a database that will be confidential, it will have the confidentiality of the information ensured so that it does absolutely no harm to any actor in the food supply chain."
The Emergency Ordinance enters into force within 90 days from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette of Romania.
Article written by Gabriela Dan, Editor of Arta Albă
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