Armenia launches food recall project

PanARMENIAN.Net - Consumer rights NGOs recently conducted social polls among public organizations, business structures, certification bodies and state-government structures. As shown by poll results, all the above bodies find citizens' awareness, mutual cooperation and transparent activities extremely important, Abgar Yegoyan , Chairman of Consumer Rights Union, told a PanARMENIAN.Net correspondent. "There is no transparency among different bodies, so it's necessary to exchange information on a single Web site," he said.



According to Mr. Yegoyan, the first step has already been made. "Three month ago, we wrote a letter to the State Inspection on Food Security and Veterinary at the Ministry of Agriculture, with a request to provide information on the amount of annual fines. The information is now available on our Web site," he said, adding that relevant cooperation among state government bodies also shows the government's interest in introducing quality certificates. "Certainly, certificates do not rule out corruption risks. To raise consumers' awareness, we proposed the initiative of creating a Web site," he added.



In this connection, Mr. Yegoyan encouraged private organizations to work transparently, without avoiding checkups by state bodies. "Primary importance should be attached to consumers' opinion, because in conditions of competitiveness, consumers prefer certified products conforming to quality standards," he said.



Mr. Yegoyan will participate in ISO - 26 International Workshop to be held in Canada on May 14. The workshop will be devoted to corporate liability issues. As noted by Chair of Consumers Rights Union, the the European states participating in the conference will represent Romania, Serbia and Armenia.



Yegoyan also added that the organization is elaborating special food recall procedures. "We have now launched a pilot project in the sphere of dairy products," he said. According to Mr. Yegoyan, this will enable consumers to give preference to conscientious food producers. In such cases the burden of guilt will fall upon sellers, as producers are always willing to take back their products.



As mentioned by Mr. Yegoyan, the organization plans to submit the project to the approval of 8 large production companies. As to consumers, they will be informed of producer's willingness to take back products for further repossession and utilization. "That will be the first step in the sphere," Head of Consumers Rights Union said.



A round table on "Transparency and Liability in the Sphere of Food Certification and Checkups" has been held in Yerevan with the participation of Agriculture and Health Ministry officials, certification agency representatives etc.