Exporting to Russia: is your business ready for digital marking?

In July 2019, Russia introduced a new law mandating the marking of consumer goods. The marking programme is being introduced on a phased basis, and by 2024, a single national marking system will cover all categories of consumer goods. According to the law, all consumer goods sold in Russia must be marked with a special digital code that will guarantee their authenticity and quality. 

The new system aims to increase safety for Russian consumers by combating the problem of counterfeit goods and low-quality analogues of well-known brands.

A dedicated public digital track and trace system called Chestny ZNAK has been created to manage the new digital marking scheme on a country-wide level. All consumer goods manufactured in Russia or destined for export to Russia must be marked with a code that serves as a ‘digital passport’, tracking the product on its journey from factory to store.

Which goods are affected?

Digital marking is coming into force gradually and is already required or announced for the majority of consumer goods, from medicines and tobacco products to clothing and baby food. Since January 1, 2021, light industry goods including clothing, tires, photo cameras, dairy products, and perfumes and eau de toilette must be marked. Selling these products without the required label will be considered illegal and blocked by the cash register in the store.

Details on which goods are affected and the dates from which digital marking will be required for each category are available in full on the Chestny ZNAK website.

What exporters to Russia need to know

The main principle of the new digital marking system is total traceability from manufacturing to sale. When an item is manufactured, it is assigned a unique code. A label with this code is attached to the item and the code is entered into the Chestny ZNAK system. At every stage as the product travels from the manufacturer to the consumer, the code is checked and compared with the code in the system, verifying that the code is valid to fight misuse and fraud. Full details about how the system works are available here.

Foreign manufacturers who export goods to Russia need to comply with the digital marking law, so goods that are intended for shipping to Russia must be marked with these codes and registered in the Chestny ZNAK system. This can be done using a dedicated solution, but it is important that the solution provider is an officially registered integration partner of Chestny ZNAK.

How SCHNEIDER GROUP can help

SCHNEIDER GROUP is an official integration partner of Chestny ZNAK. We offer companies that export consumer goods to Russia as well as local producers a comprehensive solution for marking products in accordance with the legislation, including methodological and legal advisory, business process integration, definition of IT requirements and turn-key implementation and support.

We use cutting-edge software for marking and tracking goods as they move from the manufacturer to the final customer in Russia. Implemented on the basis of the SAP Cloud Platform for reliability and resiliency, the solution includes the MarkingHub platform for marking a large volume of goods (over 100 million units per year), and supports full integration with SAP and 1C. There is also a light version that helps companies with small quantities of marked goods to save both implementation time and costs. Our labeling solution is listed on the Chestny ZNAK website as an official software partner.

Case study

SCHNEIDER GROUP recently deployed digital marking services for a US fashion group holding several top global brands.

The company required a custom solution for the real-time labeling of goods to be exported to Russia from their warehouses in Western Europe. They set very strict deadlines for development and deployment of the solution, since labeling of clothing is mandatory in Russia from the beginning of 2021.

After a very short development time of approximately one month, the solution went live in the first warehouse location. Because of the travel restrictions, work and testing was performed 100% remotely. The solution was deployed directly to the customer’s data center in Western Europe – from Moscow.

The customer can now label up to several thousand pieces daily for export to Russia. Just minutes after a new delivery is created in the client’s logistics system, the warehouses can start to scan the goods. The software automatically recognizes which items have to be marked and sends the required label to the printer at the packaging station within seconds.