Food may become more expensive if the fees to be paid for packaging increase next year

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 11. 28. 13:50

By the end of November, the Government must announce the amount of fees valid for 2024 to be paid by manufacturers to the concession company for food packaging. When the new waste management system was introduced this summer, the high level of fees hit food manufacturing companies like a cold shower. The manufacturers would like to ensure that the Government does not cause further cost increases for them by further raising the fees, which are considered exceptionally high even at the European level, because this may also be reflected in the level of food prices and food inflation.

In the European Union, the member states must operate their waste management system on the basis of uniform framework rules, the goal is to achieve a high level of selective collection and recycling of waste in the EU. Of course, the market participants who use packaging materials in their activities also contribute to the financing of the operation of the system. The amount of the contribution known as the extended producer responsibility (“EPR” fee in technical jargon) depends on the weight and type of packaging issued by the given company, as these fundamentally affect the costs incurred during the selective collection and handling of the given packaging material.

In the new domestic system that started in July, compared to the items previously collected from businesses for a similar purpose (called product fees at the time), the new EPR fees have increased significantly, even in international comparisons, by a significant amount, up to five to nine times their level. We have the highest fees for almost all packaging materials. Thus, one of Europe’s, if not the most expensive and least transparent, waste management systems was created in Hungary, while according to expert calculations, the proper and modern treatment of packaging waste could be solved at half the cost.