“Lenta” made claims to counterparties due to the supply of already allegedly sold dairy products

Dairy producers began to receive claims from the Lenta retail chain due to the supply of goods with the status of the marking code “retired”, which means that they had already been sold to the buyer. This was reported to Vedomosti by three representatives of counterparty companies. The existence of the problem is known to the association “Rusprodsoyuz”, as well as the operator of the labeling system “Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies” (CRPT). The information was also confirmed by a representative of Lenta. According to him, such cases are isolated, not systemic.

From September 1, 2022, when selling dairy products, retail chains are required to read Chestny Znak marking codes in order to transfer to the system operator data on the type of product, production date, expiration date, delivery batch, raw materials, composition, etc.

Problems with “duplication” of codes apply to all types of dairy products in batches, a representative of one of the processing companies points out. At the same time, it is impossible to sell goods with the status of “retired”, it can only be disposed of, says Andrei Neduzhko, general director of the Steppe agricultural holding. He points out that in the event of such cases, retail chains bear losses, since none of the claims against the company received from retailers was confirmed as a mistake on the part of manufacturers.

Some suppliers indicate that the problem arises due to a failure in the CRPT, says Dmitry Leonov, deputy chairman of the board of Rusprodsoyuz. At the same time, according to him, losses are borne by both suppliers and networks. There can be many reasons for this problem – from technical malfunctions to failures in the integration between the cash register of the retail chain and the Central Distribution Center, from the poor quality of the scanner at the checkout to the human factor, Leonov suggests. The top manager of a large milk processor says that the true causes are being investigated.

The list of codes with the status “dropped out” is at the disposal of the TsRPT before implementation, the representative of the marking system operator reported. According to him, no duplicates – re-scanned codes – were identified. He believes that the problem may be on the side of the network accounting system. The latter continues to accept and sell all goods and does not make claims against manufacturers, including financial ones, the representative of the CRPT assured. He did not name the network itself.

The representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated that the department had not received any appeals about this problem. He added that cases of “stuffing” into circulation of products marked with duplicate marking codes are violations of the law, and information about such cases is available to control authorities. In order to avoid the “dropped out” error, retailers need to properly process the internal movement of goods, as well as check the correctness of the product code on the check and update the cash register equipment, Neduzhko believes.

Checking labeled goods at the acceptance of retail chains is carried out on an ongoing basis, assures the chairman of the presidium of the Association of Retail Companies (AKORT, unites the largest retailers, including X5 group, “Ribbon“,”Magnet“and so on.) Igor Karavaev. According to him, individual retail chains may have specific issues with debugging the processes of acceptance of labeled goods, but they are all resolved in contact with manufacturers and the labeling operator.

Back in the summer of 2022, AKORT reported that due to the requirements for the disposal of goods at the checkout and problems with codes, the chains would not be able to sell up to 2% of the goods of the category. At the moment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has prepared amendments allowing retailers to sell such a volume of products without reading codes. Similar requirements for disposal at the checkout for packaged water came into force on November 1, 2022.

Whether other retailers have a similar problem is unknown. Representatives of X5 Group, Auchan, Metro, Azbuka Vkusa and Magnit did not respond to Vedomosti’s requests.