The depositor system implementer in Latvia SIA “Depozītapakojuma operators” is trying to split traders in its own interests, said Henriks Danusēvičs, President of the Latvian Traders Association (LTA), commenting on the establishment of the Latvian Retailers Association and its co-ownership of the “Deposit Packaging Operator”.
He reminded that the Latvian trade industry had already developed nine principles for a well-thought-out and efficient implementation of the deposit system. They were signed by both the current trade organizations and the companies.
Unfortunately, we see that the Deposit Packaging Operator does not cooperate with existing organizations. Thus, it can be understood that a special association has been set up so that the operator can publicly argue that he is cooperating with traders. (..) I think that in this case there has been some influence, as a result of which an association has been formed, so that formally the “Deposit packaging operator” can say that they are a member of a merchant organization, ”said Danusevics.
It has already been reported that the Latvian food retail brands’ Elvi ‘and’ Citro ‘companies SIA’ Elvi Latvija ‘and SIA’ Latvian Retail Management ‘have established the Latvian Retailers’ Association and become co-owners of the’ Deposit Packaging Operator ‘.
Representatives of traders informed the agency LETA that the association was established to represent the interests of the industry in state and local government institutions and to promote the sustainable development of the local trade environment. Currently, the main task of the association is to focus on the representation of trading companies and full involvement in the implementation and administration of a unified deposit system.
The information available on the portal “Firmas.lv” shows that the Latvian Retailers’ Association was registered on February 12 and its founders are “Elvi Latvija” and “Latvian Retail Management”.
Since March 16, the Latvian Retailers’ Association has also been registered as one of the members of the company “Deposit Packaging Operator” – the association owns 9.64% of the company’s shares.
With the accession of the association to the owners of the “Deposit Packaging Operator”, the distribution of the shares of the other seven co-owners has also changed. The amount of participation of the Beer and Beverage Packaging Union and also SIA “Coca-Cola HBC Latvia” has decreased from 20% to 18.07%, the participation of JSC “Cēsu alus”, SIA “Cido grupa”, SIA ”PET Baltija” and also JSC “Aldaris” the amount has decreased from 13.33% to 12.05%, but the participation of the Latvian Brewers’ Union has decreased from 6.67% to 6.02%.
It is also reported that in October 2020, the government approved the rules of the beverage packaging deposit system. The deposit system in Latvia will start operating on February 1, 2022.-
Two bidders competed in the tender for the beverage packaging deposit system operator: “Deposit packaging operator”, which belongs to the largest beverage producers, and the company “Zero deposit”, where the owners are representatives of the waste business.
In the tender, the State Environmental Service decided to entrust the beverage packaging deposit system to the “Deposit Packaging Operator” for a period of seven years. The company must start the deposit system after more than a year – in February 2022.
– .
