ArmInfo.The Russian side had doubts about the country producing blue cheese, as a result of which 21 tons of blue cheese produced by the Armenian company Spayka in its own enterprise were not allowed on the Russian market. This was announced on November 8 by Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan during a meeting of the Permanent Parliamentary Commission on Regional and Eurasian Integration.
According to him, the government works with manufacturers and exporters on a daily basis. On behalf of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, together with the State Revenue Committee, daily work is being carried out with Russian partners at the Upper Lars checkpoint. As a result of this work, numerous problems of Armenian exporters, including the Spayka company, were solved.
In particular, earlier 15 tons of Armenian cheeses were allowed on the Russian market, which actually did not go through the inspection process. This time, it was decided to carry out a detailed search, which revealed that the Armenian blue cheese was sent to the Russian Federation without documents proving the country of origin. The Minister recalled that the Russian Federation has a sanctions regime on goods produced in countries subject to sanctions, and Russian customs officials have doubts. The Armenian side, in turn, turned to its Russian partners with a request to skip the goods as an exception, to which a message was received stating that the rules of the procedural examination must be met, and this period is 3 working weeks.
Tigran Khachatryan noted that the Armenian side has not yet received documents from Russia, only after familiarizing themselves with their contents it will be possible to discuss the problem. In turn, the chairman of the parliamentary commission, Mikayel Melkumyan, recalled that the nearest laboratory is in Nalchik, 130 km from the Upper Lars checkpoint. He suggested that the minister discuss the issue with the Russian side, so that the corresponding laboratories are available at the checkpoint itself. This, according to the MP, will help to avoid many misunderstandings at the border.
Earlier,ArmInfo reported, that after 24 days of downtime at the Upper Lars checkpoint, without a written expert opinion, Russian customs officers returned cars with 21 tons of blue cheese produced in Armenia. The largest transport and logistics company of Armenia Spayka LLC reports on its website. Blue cheese is a new product of "Spayka" company, which in its technological conditions and quality is fully consistent with the products of the best European cheese makers. The enterprise was opened at the beginning of the year in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Armenia. Over 15 million euros were invested in its creation. As ArmInfo previously reported, in order to expedite customs operations, the company timely provided customs officers with all the necessary documentation, including veterinary certificates, technical production conditions, etc. To make it even more convincing that the cheeses were actually made in Armenia, the company even provided video materials on the official opening of the enterprise for the production of blue cheese in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Russian Ambassador to Armenia. The company hoped that Russia would become one of the main markets for this product under the conditions of the EAEU common customs space and with anti-sanction measures that severely restrict the import of high-quality European cheese into Russia and the import substitution policy declared by the Russian Federation within the framework of the trade union. In the opinion of Armenian experts, it seems that Armenian producers of products cannot be guided exclusively by the markets of the EAEU and, first of all, Russia with its unpredictable approach even to partners in the Union. Thus, according to head of the Export Armenia Association of Experts Emil Stepanyan, such behavior undermines, discredits the very idea, the essence of the EAEU as such. He believes that the inadmissibility of Armenian cheese on the Russian market is warning for the whole of Armenia, it is a simulation of the situation of a complete ban on Armenian exports to the Russian Federation. "We need to think on a national scale about stimulating exports to third countries - the EU, China, the USA, Africa, the Middle East," he emphasized. At the same time, as stated earlier in parliament, head of the commission on regional issues of Eurasian integration Mikayel Melkumyan, members of the commission traveled to the Upper Lars checkpoint, during which they identified a number of problems, including administrative ones.