(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Several importers and retailers say they find it hard to comply with recent rules related to Arabic labelling for imported food products and have sought a relaxation.
Arabic nutrition labelling was made compulsory recently for imported food items. Under the new labelling system, each dietary elements in the food item should be specified along with the calories in Arabic language. This is intended to help consumers choose food based on the contents, dietary needs and calculate the calories.
Some of the retail chains revealed to The Peninsula that they had to stop import of various products due to mandatory nutrition facts labelling in Arabic language. Many products are reportedly held up at ports as requirements are not met.
'Many of the products imported from the Europe and US have nutrition labels on them, however, they are usually in English. They cannot print Arabic nutrition labels on their product covers, just for Qatar, since the market here is not that big, manager of a leading regional retail group told The Peninsula.
'Earlier the authorities had made it mandatory to have an Arabic ingredients list printed on food products. We complied to that and started sticking printed list as per requirement. Now with the Arabic nutrition label made necessary, it would mean more than one sticker on one piece of a product, he added.
Retailers point out that many companies would not disrupt their production line for a small market. However, if the requirement was made for the whole region, companies would also be forced to comply with the requirements. As of now, no other GCC country has made the Arabic nutrition labelling mandatory, they say.
'Since Qatar market is small, most of the companies cannot interrupt the production line. If it was a requirement of all the GCC countries, they would have lent in, said an official at one of the oldest Qatar-based retail chains.
'In fact, as it became difficult to get clearance from the ports, we had to stop import of many assorted products, including frozen foods, juice and other items. Officials had informed that we could put the sticker once the product arrives here. But it is a tedious task, he said. Authorities had stressed that food consignments that do not meet the requirements would be cleared from ports after the required labelling conditions are fulfilled by the importers.
'There would be some 10 to 25 individual product in a carton. Each consignment would have many more such cartons. So if we are doing it here, we will need extra man power and work time allocation, lamented the official.
Another retail chain representative also stressed that the products which do not meet the requirements, even if cleared from the ports cannot be sold here.
'Even if the authorities release the product based on some conditions, to sell them we need to place the required labels and meet the specifications, said head of buying of a major retail group here.
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