The drink “Mr. Cider”, after the consumption of which more than 30 people died, has nothing to do with cider, but the mass poisoning situation in general caused “irreparable damage” to the low alcohol beverage industry. About this in the Russian media program “What was it?!” with Tatiana Bur declared alcohol market expert, member of the presidium of the All-Russian public organization of small and medium-sized enterprises “Support for Russia” Alexei Nebolsin.
The interlocutor of Russian media pointed out that a year ago the company Samara Andi registered three dozen drinks with different tastes under the Mister Cider brand, for example, such as rum and cola, whiskey and cola, sex on the beach and such. Federal Liquor Registry, all were officially listed as beer beverages.
At the same time, according to Nebolsin, in violation of the law, the products were not made by fermentation for 30-60 days in special containers, as it should be in the production of this type of alcohol, but by mixing flavorings, water and ethyl alcohol, instead of which, in May, an inappropriate methyl alcohol was used.
“People have been poisoned by a low-alcohol surrogate cocktail. <…> In the cider drink, as in the beer drink, ethyl alcohol is not used – there is natural alcohol. This must be clearly understood. But as a result of the four-day hype staged by the media and all those who are not lazy, we have suffered irreparable damage to the cider industry today. Also, I think it will take a long time to erase cider’s good reputation from what it has become these days,” Nebolsin said.
The expert added that due to the reputational blow “which has reduced the cider industry to dust and which will not recover now”, he had to organize “an emergency headquarters which will deal with saving industry”.
Nebolsin complained that because of the history of mass poisoning, “everyone wants to regulate” the production of beer and cider. However, he believes, since people have suffered precisely from a substitute cocktail, there is no reason to tighten regulatory policy regarding cider, beer and beer-based beverages.
According to him, deputies, representatives of regulatory bodies and various departments shared the same position at a meeting of the Economic Policy Committee of the State Duma, held on June 9, where, among others, measures were discussed to protect Russians from similar incidents. in the future.
As the expert explained, the excise tax on low-alcohol cocktails in Russia is 34 rubles per liter, and on beer drinks – 25 rubles per liter. Thus, for each liter of his products sold, the owner of “Monsieur Cidre” “put in his pocket” nine rubles, said a member of the presidium of “Opora Rossii”. Moreover, on the brand’s website, drinks were displayed at 57 rubles per liter, and in stores they were sold at 26 rubles, which is only one ruble more expensive than the cost of excise duty.
“Today I announced that in the State Duma, we must urgently introduce a barrier for these producers in the form of a minimum retail price (MRP) for drinks such as beer, cider, mead. And we are supported in this by the federal authorities, the Ministry of Finance, we are supported by Rosalkogolregulirovanie,” he shared.
Last year, Nebolsin added, the price of beer was at least 80 rubles per liter, and the cost of a beer drink should be even higher, the expert believes. Therefore, according to his estimates, the approximate cost of a beer drink should be “about 90 rubles” per liter.
“That is, it cannot be sold below this price. And he announced 57 rubles, and immediately anyone who enters the site, including regulatory authorities, (sees): “In below the MRC – come here”, he concluded.
Mass poisonings with the drink “Mr. Cider” have been recorded since June 5. A total of 31 people died from its use in different regions of Russia, at least 90 were injured. According to the results of numerous examinations, impurities of methanol and ethyl butyrate were found in liquids in proportions threatening the life and health of consumers. 6 June Leninsky District Court of Ulyanovsk stopped Anar Huseynov, owner of Andi, for two months. He is accused of providing services that do not meet safety requirements and negligently causing the death of two or more people (part 3 of article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Under this article, he faces up to ten years in prison. As established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, methyl alcohol went into production as a result of a robbery in the warehouse of the “Center for Economic and Service Support” of the regional department of the Ministry of Interior. For this reason, on June 8, the head of the department, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, dismissed the deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Samara region, Major General Yuri Safronov.
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