Following the fur coats

The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to introduce electronic marking of shoes. As you know, since April this year, fur products in Russia have already been marked with electronic RFID tags, and since August 12, a ban on the sale of unmarked fur products has been in effect. Electronic tagging is a measure to combat counterfeit products.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification, radio frequency identification) is a technology that involves fixing tags on goods that react to the radio emission of the scanner and transmit the information of the chip that is part of the tag to it. The scanners sense RFID tags from a distance of tens of meters, thus, customs can instantly carry out registration of containers with labeled goods, and regulatory authorities will be able to quickly check the legality of goods in trade and suppress trade in unmarked goods.

So far, the proposal for the labeling of shoe products causes skepticism among representatives of the shoe market and many questions - how labeling will be carried out, how goods will be controlled, and others.

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Aleksandra Andrunakievich, head of the Russian Union of Leatherworkers and Shoemakers, believes that despite the fact that the Russian footwear market is completely opaque, it is still not clear how this system will work to take measures that will help whitewash it. “The main thing is control, in order for the proposed system to work, the market must be monitored. But how will this be done in practice, if, for example, most of the shoe enterprises today belong to small businesses, and the law restricts inspections of small businesses? Despite the fact that the initiative is good, there are still a lot of questions, and it is important that all this does not turn into formalism that will hinder both companies and consumers, ”she says. In terms of the methodology for carrying out control activities, Alexandra Andrunakievich advises to pay attention to the practice of monitoring the ANO "Russian Quality System" (Roskachestvo), the organization conducts rolling test purchases of companies' products in all regions, and publishes the identified discrepancies with the declared quality on its website. “This control methodology works,” she notes.