Lack of cheap vodka results is losing superior category

Some of the best Hrodna restaurants will be deprived of their superior price category. The reason for it was a check-up conducted by the State Control Committee. It turned out that a bar “Retro pizza”, “Korchma” and a café “Moscow” did not have Belarusian vodka, beer and juice.
They also used imported onions, carrots and cabbages instead of Belarusian ones. The restaurants are very popular and foreign guests are often brought there.

The superior category is extremely important for restaurant owners as they have to pay an enormous rent. The quality of Belarusian products is not always satisfactory. Our Hrodna reporter Alina Kashkevich informs:

"According to one of the owners of the bars, expensive fruit and vegetables allow setting bigger extra charges. It is essential for bar owners because the rent is very big. He also said that Belarusian vegetables they received were not always good enough. There are more waste products and they require more work in the kitchen. It is unprofitable to use them”.

The head of the consumer market control department of Hrodna Region State Control Committee informed that there were a lot of violations but did not mention the restaurants that would be punished.

“There were a lot of violations – practically all violations that can be found in catering. Corresponding organs will punish them. We fined them and we are going to send the information to executive power organs so that they consider it and decide what measures should be taken”.

ERB visited bars “Retro pizza” and “Korchma” and found out that not only administrators were fined together with the enterprises. “Retro pizza” was deprived of its superior category the day before yesterday. The administrator of “Korchma” informed us about it.

“There was no Belarusian beer and no Belarusian juice. In fact, we have 5 kinds of Belarusian vodka. However, we did not have vodka with paper labels, we only had souvenir bottles. I was summoned to the State Control Committee a week later. I went there. I was fined for 175 thousands about two weeks ago. However, it was me, one more administrator and the enterprise. But I do not know for how much money the enterprise was fined”.

ERB has found out that such check-ups were conducted in other cites too. Some cafes were checked in Mahileu. SCC employees wondered whether there were Belarusian products in a café pizzeria “Parmesan”. However, there were no problems.

“We have everything - domestic and imported products. Of course we have more Belarusian products rather than imported ones. There were check-ups and there were no problems”.

As ERB has found out in the State Control Committee, an enterprise could not be deprived of its price category for such violations. The violations should be more serious than the absence of Belarusian beer on the menu.

“Nobody can deprive an enterprise of its price category for the absence of domestic products. Categories can be changed by those who assign them. A catering enterprise should stick with a number of demands to acquire the superior category. I am absolutely sure that they can deprive of the license for not using domestic products but they cannot change the price category”.

The prices in the cafes deprived of the superior category will drop but it will also affect their prestige and income. The owners will have difficulty trying to keep the current quality and it will be consumers who will suffer from it.


Photo by  — portal74.ru