ArmInfo.. Last year, Armenia managed to increase the volume of wine exports by 30-35%. President of the National Wine Center Avag Harutyunyan stated this. He noted that if climatic conditions are favorable in 2022, the volume of wine exported from Armenia will increase by another 50% .
According to Harutyunyan, the explosive growth of winemaking is due to the state policy of promoting this area over the past decade. "This is the area that has an internal buffer, a reserve, which allows it to withstand the wrong decisions of the government or, on the contrary, quickly respond to the right decisions, which allows it to grow permanently," the head of the National Wine Center emphasized.
Harutyunyan noted that billions of dollars will be required to reach the volume of wine exports provided by Georgia. According to the expert, the reason why Armenia is almost 10 times behind Georgia in terms of exports is still in the geopolitical decisions made back in the USSR. Assessing the situation objectively, he noted that the existing resources and concentration in the field of winemaking do not allow to make timely decisions and then correct the mistakes. According to Harutyunyan, this process is slow, which is in line with our capabilities.
"I don't want to say laudatory words about the government, but the truth is that all the previous governments taken together could not provide such indicators in terms of credit and leasing policies, as the current authorities managed to do. Thanks to this, the re-equipment of the wine industry was implemented very quickly. We are now at a very good start", the expert said.
At the same time, the expert drew attention to the existing gaps. In particular, according to him, Armenian wines are not so well represented in foreign markets. This task should be undertaken by the state, using all available levers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this regard, Harutyunyan touched upon the trade missions of Armenia operating in different countries, which, as he noted, should not be guided by the limited interests of a narrow group of people, as was the case under the former authorities.
It should be noted that according to the RA Statistical Committee, over the 11 months of 2021, the volumes of wines produced in Armenia increased by 21.7% to 11.3 million liters. At the same time, the volumes of sparkling wine (champagne) increased by 3.5% - up to 635.6 thousand liters.
According to the Customs Service (RA Customs Service), in H1 2021, Armenia exported 1.4 million liters wine with a y-o-y growth of 56.6% (against a 30.6% decline a year earlier). At the same time, the customs value of exported wine increased by 55.7% to $5.1 million. Traditionally, the main export market for Armenian wine is the Russian Federation, which accounts for 59% of exports (against 69.8% H12020), followed by 10-11% is followed by Ukraine and the USA, and the remaining volume is supplied to Kazakhstan, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Canada, China, Israel, Greece, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Australia, UAE, Belarus, Germany, Latvia , Lebanon, Taiwan, Iceland.
