By Gogos Katseli
The government is putting a brake on profiteering and shortages that may occur on supermarket shelves in commodities due to the war in Ukraine, making it mandatory to inventory stocks in seven categories of agricultural items and food, including sunflower oil and flour.
Some online supermarkets have already set a limit on the number of items consumers can buy, and a large chain has expanded to its physical stores for sunflower oil only, allowing customers to purchase up to four items in one or more packages. of two liters and one piece in the five-liter package.
Although both businesses and government officials are reassuring about the adequacy of products, the government, with an amendment submitted late Tuesday night and voted in Parliament yesterday, provides for emergency measures to ensure the adequacy of agricultural products and food for food security. and avoiding unfair commercial practices.
Thus, the companies that are active in the chain of production, import, marketing, sale, brokerage of distribution, distribution and storage of agricultural products and food in the Greek territory have the obligation to submit the stock data in seven product categories within two days. Otherwise, heavy “bells” are provided with fines that can reach up to 100,000 euros.
According to the explanatory memorandum, “in the current climate of uncertainty, following the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, prevent any adverse effects on food security “.
Products
The obligation to declare stocks concerns the following products:
· Raw materials for the production of fertilizers,
· Fertilizers,
· pet food,
· Raw cereals of all kinds, in particular wheat or rye, rye, barley, oats, maize, edible buckwheat,
· Flour, in particular wheat or rye flour and cereal flour,
Sunflower, and
· Vegetable oils, other than olive oil, in particular sunflower oil (sunflower oil), palm oil and maize.
What companies say
According to the regulation, which was voted yesterday in the Parliament, the companies should indicate at least the following elements:
(a) the quantity of stocks, in kilograms for solids, in liters for liquids and in pieces where appropriate;
b) the country of origin of the products,
(c) the storage location of the stocks and, in particular, the address and postal code;
(d) the contact details of the undertaking and, in particular, the name and distinctive title, registered office, telephone number, e-mail address and, in particular, the contact details of its legal representative.
The application will be submitted electronically through a special link located on the main website of the Ministry of Development and Investment, which is accessible through the Unified Digital Portal of the State, gov.gr. The access is made through the passwords of the General Commercial Register of the obligors
companies or, if they do not exist, through TAXIS passwords.
“Thick” fines
In any case, the non-submission or submission of an inaccurate declaration, entails the cumulative imposition of sanctions, such as seizure of the reported items, insofar as they have not been declared or have been declared incorrectly, and an administrative fine of 1,000-100,000 euros, depending on the severity of the infringement.
It is noted that the declaration must be submitted within 2 days from the publication of the joint decision provided for in the amended vote. In fact, due to the state of emergency, it is estimated that the ministerial decision will be published immediately, which means that the inventory statements will “run” unexpectedly next week.
The obligation to declare stocks is valid for a period of 3 months, however, by decision of the Minister of Rural Development, George Georgantas can be extended each time for an additional 3 months, depending on the situation on the Ukrainian front and the international food crisis.
Georgiadis: Sufficient stocks for months
However, the Minister of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, in his speech yesterday in Parliament during the presentation of the relevant regulation, stressed that there are sufficient reserves “for months ahead” in cereals, flour and vegetable oils.
“I am clarifying it so as not to create panic for no reason. We have already recorded, from the big chains, the stocks in these products. “There are sufficient stocks, for months ahead of us, for all these products.” He noted, however, that especially for sunflower oil, there seems to be more pressure, because due to the large increase in the price of fossil fuels a large part of sunflower oil goes for fuel and so is missing from the food market, however, and in this species we have great big space.
He added that the obligation of traders throughout the production chain to declare the quantities of these products on an electronic platform, is required so that the state has a complete picture “and above all, not to allow some to cause artificial shortages, and with it to hoard, either by the black market or by artificially increasing their price too much, more than it is caused by the international crisis “.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
