"Vodka" on vodka, "rum" on rum: the government has met supermarkets halfway 0 11

In support of traders, officials are proposing to eliminate administrative burdens. Specifically, to remove the tedious obligation to label each foreign product with "explanatory" Latvian labels that no one reads anyway.

"Currently, the Law on the Control of Food Circulation and other relevant legal acts in Latvia require that every imported product has detailed labeling in the Latvian language, including products that are obvious and immediately understandable to the consumer, such as hair ties, pens, A4 sheets of paper, or alcoholic beverages, for example, 'vodka' on vodka or 'rum' on rum.

This requirement applies even if the original label already contains the product name in English and is fully understandable to the consumer. As a result, market participants have to manually label 12–16 million units of products per year.

Of this total, approximately 500,000 units are for strong alcoholic beverages, about 1 million for beer, and around 400,000 units for wine.

In total, this creates about 800,000 euros per year in labor and material costs for the company.

These costs directly increase the product price for the consumer and create an disproportionately large administrative burden in the product segment where the consumer immediately understands the essence of the product, and the translated label adds no additional informational value. Such a requirement should only be considered in cases where the product name is not obvious or may mislead the consumer.