Ovidiu Nicolescu, CNIPMMR: "The President Must Promulgate The Marketing Law

The Foodstuff Marketing Law, submitted to President Traian Basescu for promulgation is one of the five most important crisis containment measures and needs to be signed into law as soon as possible, Ovidiu Nicolescu, President of the National Council of Small- and Medium-Sized Private Enterprises in Romania (CNIPMMR) stated yesterday.

Nicolescu believes that the law contains provisions which protect Romanian foodstuff producers against the widespread unfair competition practices of the major retail chains operating in Romania. "The law forbids supermarkets to transfer costs to their suppliers. At the moment, between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of the sale price is generated by costs incurred by the producers and not the retail chains," the president of CNIPMMR stated.

He further warned about the widespread practice of the producers to sell their products through supermarkets chains for a price below the production cost until their local competition is driven out of business.

"The law bans unfair competition practices and eliminates the discredit caused to the producers, who are no longer limited in terms of commercial policy and pricing policy," Ovidiu Nicolescu added.

Another benefit of the Foodstuff Marketing Law, which the president of the CNIPMMR emphasized, refers to the enforcement of strict payment deadlines that retail chains must observe as part of their relationship with the producers in order to prevent any payment delays and subsequent financial gridlocks. Specifically, supermarkets will have 12 days as a legal deadline to pay their suppliers for fresh products, 20 days to pay for frozen products and 35 days to pay for "other products."

In Ovidiu Nicolescu"s opinion, further benefits of the rapid promulgation of this law include a decrease in imports and a concurrent increase in exports. "Romania is the largest importer of foodstuffs among all the European countries with an annual value of some 6 billion EUR. I am therefore convinced that the new Foodstuff Marketing Law will cause imports to decrease by some 20 per cent in a year or two," said the president of CNIPMMR. According to him, exports will increase, because producers will no longer have restrictions that are currently preventing them from diversifying their customer portfolio.