ArmInfo. The Russian market should not be a prevalent sales market for Armenian wine, Head of the Winemakers' Union of Armenia Avag Harutyunyan said at a press conference on January 12.
When replying to ArmInfo's question, the expert said that Armenia should work towards the markets of China and India. This is possible only at the level of arrangements of the groups of producers, not under a state agreement within the EEU. Harutyunyan noted that the EEU is a sales market for cheap products, but Armenia cannot supply cheap products to that market due to the lack of resources for production with low prime cost. This demonstrates unequal conditions of competition with Georgian, Moldovan, Azerbaijani and Russian producers. "If we are able to produce wine worth $1-1.5 per bottle, the EEU market will become a wonderful platform," he said.
Harutyunyan pointed out that today Armenia exports an average of 2 mln bottles of wine to Russia, with the total output being 6 mln bottles, including 4 bottles of grape wine. At the same time, Georgia exports 30-35 mln bottles to the Russian market. "Today Georgia receives millions of dollars in grants to develop winemaking, whereas we are not perceived seriously as winemakers. Armenia is famous for its brandy," he said.
According to the Armenian Customs Service, in the first half of 2016, Armenia exported 780 thsd liters of wine (up 25% versus H1 2015). Throughout 2015, wine exports dropped by 29% to 1.5 mln liters versus 50% rise a year before. In Jan-Nov 2016, the wine output totaled 5.8 mln liters (up 15.6% versus Jan-Nov 2015 and down 2.1% versus Jan-Nov 2014).