Latvian media: Saeima must urgently amend procurement rules to prevent cheap imports dominating public catering

Latvia's public catering could see cheap imported food products become dominant in the coming weeks unless the Saeima urgently approves amendments to the Food Circulation Supervision Law that have already been submitted. This warning comes from business news outlet Dienas Bizness, which notes that August is usually the month when municipalities sign food supply contracts for schools and kindergartens.

Following amendments to the Public Procurement Law and the abolition of the previous Green Public Procurement regulation, local producers no longer have the advantages that previously helped balance competition. The outlet stresses that this affects not only educational institutions but also hospitals, social care centres, the armed forces and other public bodies, which spend tens of millions of euros on food every year.

The European Union bans protectionism, but member states can use quality criteria, sustainability requirements, national quality schemes and measures to promote organic food. In Latvia, this role was fulfilled by Green Public Procurement, which allowed products bearing the Green Spoon and Bordeaux Spoon quality marks, as well as organic food, to be given additional consideration. After the regulatory change, these tools have in practice disappeared.

Dienas Bizness argues that Latvia cannot win a price war against countries with much larger production volumes and lower costs, so the only way to compete is on quality. In Europe, public procurement has long ceased to be about choosing the lowest bid; it is a tool for strengthening the national economy. Currently, there is a risk that public money will flow to foreign suppliers, while Latvian children, producers, farmers and the economy lose out.

The amendments already before the Saeima would restore the possibility to use national quality schemes in public food procurement. However, as the outlet emphasises, they must be passed without delay. Otherwise, contracts signed in August will determine what children eat for the entire next school year, and stopping the wave of cheap imports will become much harder. Every missed week increases the likelihood that the new situation becomes entrenched.