Since 2018, veterinary certificates have been issued only through the Mercury system of the Rosselkhoznadzor.
It was planned that this would free the store shelves from falsification and delay, especially in the dairy sector. However, something went wrong. From the purchase of goods of unknown origin, as before, no one is insured. But on the labeling of milk, structures controlled by influential oligarchs successfully earn money.
The bad news is that the Mercury system, which has been developed under the auspices of Rosselkhoznadzor since 2009, still allows outright fakes to enter the retail chains. Actually, it could not be otherwise. Once upon a time, veterinary certificates were written out on paper, which is why they were easily forged by craftsmen. Or fake papers were drawn up by dishonest veterinarians on real forms with real seals. Now Russia has switched to electronic certificates, but little seems to have changed. New certificates are also forged, but with the help of “digital” manipulations.
A veterinary certificate for meat or milk is issued by an employee of the veterinary station who controls the livestock on the farm. Thus, he confirms the health of animals that are going to be slaughtered. “Mercury” somewhat simplified the paperwork. The farmer submits an application for a certificate in electronic form and in the form of an electronic document receives the certificate itself in response. The system “links” this certificate to a batch of meat or milk. And since all intermediaries and stores are now required to be connected to Mercury, the path of products can be traced from the farm to the shelf in the supermarket. However, it only comes out smoothly on paper.
The other day, the head of the Rosselkhoznadzor department for the Rostov, Volgograd, Astrakhan regions and the Republic of Kalmykia, Vladislav Shichanin, at a round table in the Legislative Assembly of the Rostov region, complained to deputies that products of unknown origin enter the Mercury system. For example, in the Salsky district, the farm was able to obtain electronic certificates for the sale of 40 tons of raw milk per day. However, when checking, it turned out that there were no cows in this farm at all.
Another offender was also found by accident. African swine fever was discovered in one of the farms, checks began, during which it turned out that the enterprise received veterinary accompanying documents for volumes of meat that it simply could not have. Probably, products that did not pass veterinary control could be supplied to retail chains through them.
The fact that the problem was discussed in the Rostov region is not surprising. Rumors have been circulating for a long time that meat and milk produced by Donbas farmers are being legalized in the region. Whether there is proper veterinary control in the unrecognized republics – only God knows. However, Rostov officials are reluctant to bear responsibility in case of mass poisonings or epidemics. That’s where the “signals” come in. Like, we warned.
However, information about fake electronic certificates has been leaked before. The technologies used for this are approximately the same as for fake QR codes about vaccination against covid. That is, fake web pages with product data are created. Although unreliable information may be contained in the Mercury system itself. However, this information is rarely leaked. For example, we learned that only in the first quarter of last year in Primorye, 125 administrative cases were initiated for violations in the Mercury system. Among those held accountable is a veterinarian who issued electronic certificates for expired products. It is also known that batches of expired dumplings and chicken carcasses were found.
At the same time, the scale of violations looks frightening: inspectors found 125 facts in one region in 3 months. How many haven’t been found? And how many of them throughout Russia? Here it is also necessary to take into account that one electronic certificate can be issued for a huge batch of products.
Recall that it was precisely in order to get rid of delays and counterfeits that a system of labeling products was introduced in Russia. But, as you can see now, the idea turned into a profanation. About the marking system and its relationship with the “Mercury” must be said separately. “Mercury” was created at public expense. Under the auspices of the Rosselkhoznadzor, it is being developed by the All-Russian Research Institute of Animal Health. It took at least 400 million rubles. “Mercury” is only a part of the huge Vetis system, which is used by Rosselkhoznadzor in the field of veterinary medicine. Other components are highly specialized. For example, the Irena component controls veterinary medicines, and the Vesta component controls laboratory tests. “Mercury” is interesting in that it collects information about finished products, in which all the profits of Russian animal husbandry are concentrated.
It is not surprising that when the system started working, people who wanted to monetize this data array immediately appeared. For example, to sell entrepreneurs information about the stocks of a particular product in warehouses, the number of returns, the amount of delinquency written off, etc. However, in this market, everyone was quickly moved by Operator-TsRPT LLC (usually it is simply called TsRPT). Not without administrative resources.
In 2019, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev personally appointed the CRPT as the single operator of the digital marking system for goods in Russia. Behind the company are the structures of powerful lobbyists – the oligarch Alisher Usmanov and the state corporation Rostec, as well as venture investor Alexander Galitsky.
CRPT has created a marking system called “Honest Sign”. It cooperates with Mercury on dairy products. That is, it is, in fact, a superstructure on the state system. She takes information from it and, based on it, prints QR codes for dairy products. In theory, these QR codes allow consumers and inspection authorities to track the path of products, make sure of their legal origin, quality and safety. But there are many questions about implementation.
Firstly, “quarries” often simply do not work. Our correspondents scanned the codes on several well-known brands of dairy products in large retail chains in a number of Russian cities. And the result is the same everywhere: on the screens of smartphones, a set of letters and numbers appeared, from which the average consumer could not understand anything.
Secondly, taking into account the violations that occur within the “Mercury” system, it must be admitted that the information of the “Honest Sign” is of little value. What is the use of checking electronic documents if it is known that their forgery has been put on stream? At the same time, there is no one to ask for the final result. “Honest Sign” puts “kuars” on the basis of information from “Mercury”, and “Mercury” did not promise anything to consumers at all and did not take money from anyone.