The Chamber of Foreign Trade of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VTK BiH) once again appealed to the competent institutions to act urgently on the initiative of the Group of Milk and Dairy Products Processors of VTK BiH, which refers to the consistent application of current regulations in the area of consumer information on food and market protection, and the adoption of the Rulebook on additional requirements for placing on the market products containing palm oil, palm oil and other vegetable oils and fats as soon as possible.
The initiative refers to the consistent application of the Rulebook on providing information to consumers about food, and entity laws – the Law on Internal Trade of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Law on Trade of the Republika Srpska, and regarding consumer protection through clear product declaration and product positioning in commercial establishments.
The rulebook on providing information to consumers about food defines the legal framework for informing consumers by subjects in the food business, with the aim of smooth functioning of the internal market and consumer protection through clear, understandable and legible labeling of food. In accordance with the Rulebook, every subject in the food business, whether it is a domestic producer or an importer, is obliged to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information about food and is responsible for its content.
In the previous period, domestic producers of milk and milk products witnessed that some imported products were marketed outside the valid legal framework in the area of consumer information about food, often without prescribed or with inadequate declarations. Such a practice misleads consumers and directly affects the reduction of the competitiveness of domestic products on the internal market of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
With the aim of solving this problem, which VTK BiH continuously delegates and points to since 2004, the representatives of the Group and the Food Safety Agency of BiH, in cooperation with the Chamber, prepared a proposal for the Rulebook on additional requirements for placing on the market products containing palm oil, palm oil and other vegetable oils and fats. The proposal is modeled on the practice of the Republic of Serbia, where from August 1, 2025, a regulation is applied which additionally regulates the labeling and separation of these products from dairy products.
The adoption of this rulebook is extremely important for both consumers and producers of dairy products, as it provides consumers with the right to make an informed choice, and producers with clear frameworks that prevent misleading labeling and unfair competition.
“The Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina calls on the competent institutions to urgently take the necessary steps within their competences so that the proposal of the Rulebook is adopted as soon as possible, and at the same time to strengthen controls regarding the declaration and physical separation of products of plant and animal origin on the shelves of commercial establishments,” VTK BiH reported. BHRT.
