NATIONAL STANDARDS

The threat of a world food crisis this year has made the need for Azerbaijani self-sufficiency in agricultural produce more urgent than ever before. Favourable weather conditions, numerous benefits for farmers and a number of other factors have led to a growth in food production in the country. However, solving the basic problem of quantity has had a negative impact on the quality of food produced. Naturally, this affects not just the export competitiveness of Azerbaijani products, but also domestic consumers' trust in them. Of course, a number of new brands have appeared in the country which should become suppliers of high quality food. But they are clearly not enough, and it is not so easy to make most manufacturers comply with the necessary standards and norms of production. The chairman of the State Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Patents, Ramiz Hasanov, thinks that it is high time to toughen sanctions against these offenders. He shared his ideas about this with Region Plus.

- Against the background of intensive economic growth, the country's leadership has set out to adopt international standards for domestic production. We are talking today about three groups of standards - ISO, European and national standards. As for the latter, we have no intention of re-inventing the wheel here and, if there is a ready-made international standard that meets the requirements of Azerbaijani legislation, our specialists translate it into Azerbaijani and "put it into circulation". But there are separate standards for specific food products such as dusbara, dovga and so on. One way or another, all three standards are based on food safety and the elimination of harmful constituents.

We have to say that Europe and a number of CIS countries have already adopted a technical schedule that provides for a detailed description of norms for the manufacture of any particular product. It is a businessman's personal affair what sort of standard to employ here. Azerbaijan is also preparing to adopt such schedules but, to be honest, this procedure takes a long time and requires the presence of a legal basis. But we have already prepared a draft law "On the technical schedule" which has also been approved by experts from the World Trade Organization and government agencies. The draft law has been submitted to the government, but it has to be re-submitted to parliament.

For the time being, on the orders of President Ilham Aliyev, we are increasing control over the observation by manufacturers of existing norms and standards up to the correct labelling of products. If violations are discovered, an instruction is signed to withdraw the "non-standard" products from production and to send them for reprocessing.

- What about low quality primary products? Why do the residents of Baku, for example, have to rely only upon the diligence of vendors when buying vegetables, fruit or meat?

- You know, personally I think that the main problem today is that the Azerbaijani consumer is unaware of his rights and does not demand that the manufacturer and seller of the product observe them. No matter how much effort the numerous state supervisory bodies make, their activities will be ineffective until the media and consumers take the situation into their own hands. They have the right to know everything about the product they are going to buy and they must demand all the necessary documents when buying it.

The situation here is as follows: a manufacturer who has problems selling his product gives it to some point of sale at a lower price and that point of sale promises to pay after selling it. It is a lucrative tandem: manufacturer-seller, but in this case, the loser is the third component of the chain - the buyer, who knows nothing about the conditions in which this product was made and where it was stored - in a word, whether it is usable at all. If the consumer demanded to see the papers for the product, the trader would stop selling products of dubious quality, which would compel the manufacturer to observe production standards.

- You yourself spoke of the presence of numerous supervisory bodies in Azerbaijan protecting consumers' rights, and your organization is one of them. But, to be honest, quantity does not affect the quality of this process. Isn't it time to join your efforts?

- I agree with the way you put the question. Indeed, there are too many supervisory bodies now and they have little effect. Of course, there are some shortcomings and gaps in the law. Of course, it would be good to coordinate the work of government agencies and intensify the involvement of non-government organizations in the process of supervision. After all, we all have one aim - to ensure that the citizens of Azerbaijan eat high quality food.

- How has Azstandard organized its work in this sphere in the regions of the country?

- In the regions of the country, the situation concerning the observation of standards is worse, which often causes mass food poisoning within the population. All points of sale and residents in the regions buy products from private shops, acquaintances, relatives and so on. Of course, no-one even demands to see documents about compliance with standards. The State Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Patents has its own branches in the regions, but we have to bear in mind that we only control the process of production in enterprises, while food makes its way to the counter in various ways.

- You have repeatedly raised the issue of compliance with standards for food products imported into the country. How urgent is this problem?

- Today it is impossible to control the flow of food into the country. People bring in food even in their own bags and put it on sale in shops, with the usual "credit" arrangement. Of course, if a shopkeeper is told that he can pay after selling the product, he takes the product without a certificate.

The situation surrounding the importation of children's food into Azerbaijan is not so good either. Consumers complain that many of these products are put on sale after they have passed their sell-by date, or a month before, which is also undesirable. The thing is that children's food becomes considerably cheaper two or three months before it passes its sell-by date abroad. Our importers buy it there cheap and sell it here at the normal price.

I think that we can combat this tendency only by toughening penalties. The maximum penalty we can impose today is 250 manats, which does not deter dishonest suppliers. I think it is time to change this system and to add criminal liability to the list of sanctions. We have already prepared a package of proposals to address this and will submit it to the government soon. We hope that after it is adopted, the situation surrounding the observance of standards for manufacturing and importing food into Azerbaijan will improve significantly.