Case on debt of "Vinar" LLC to farmers of Kaghtsrashen taken to court

ArmInfo. Debt of "Vinar" LLC to farmers of Kaghtsrashen has reached 85 mln drams during the recent two years, Head of Union of Winemakers of Armenia Artak Sargsyan stated at the press conference on January 23.

Referring to the entrepreneurs' explanations the expert informed that debt of "Vinar" LLC is caused by difficulties with selling the product, particularly related to entering new markets. "In one word they can always find a reason to justify their non-solvency, but why do farmer have to suffer?, he stressed adding that the case of "Vinar" LLC was taken to the court in December of last year. "We should solve this issue in the shortest time possible", the Head of the Union stated.

Answering to ArmInfo's question Sargsyan noted that the main reason of the current unfavorable situation for farmers is lack of legal documents-an agreement regulating the obligations of the sides.  According to the Head of the Union the farmers were given only an invoice paper, in which date, the amount of grape, the date and the price were mentioned and which is not a legal basis for an agreement.  "They say they do not sign agreements, if there is grape they take it", the Head of the Union cited the entrepreneurs' words. In this light Sargsyan considers that the number one task is to sign agreements on mutually beneficial terms, otherwise such problems will inevitably double.

According to the expert in 2016 grape yield in Armenia totaled 109 thsd tons. At the same time according to the data of Customs Service of Armenia in the H1 2016 Armenia exported 548.5 tons of grape with annual decline by 55.2% amid drop of customs cost by 41.3% to $360.4 thsd. Export of wine totaled 780 thsd liters in the same period with 25% y-o-y growth, amid growth of customs cost by 52% to $2.5 mln.  According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia production of wine in Jan-Nov 2016 totaled 5.8 mln liters with 15.6% y-o-y growth versus 2.1% decline in the same period of last year.

To note, "Vinar" LLC wine plant was founded in 1995. The company was specializing on imports of equipment for wine making. Currently Vinar produces ordinary and collection wines, liquors, brandies, fruit brandies and cognac spirit. The company uses native varieties of grape for producing high quality wines.