ArmInfo.By banning the import of dairy products from Armenia, Russia in the form of "demo sanctions" is trying to demonstrate what can happen to the RA economy. Haykaz Fanyan, director of the Modex consulting company, shares this opinion.
On March 31, it was reported that the Rosselkhoznadzor was asking Armenia to suspend the supply of dairy products to Russia from April 5, 2023. It was noted that the milk processing enterprises of Armenia use raw materials produced by the enterprises of the Islamic Republic of Iran, against which Rosselkhoznadzor applied restrictive measures. The nature of the identified violations also indicates the lack of proper control by the state veterinary service over the activities of dairy processing enterprises, which raises the risk of low-quality and unsafe products being imported into Russia. "Rosselkhoznadzor" is particularly concerned about the cases when, without agreement with the Russian side or despite the official refusal sent to the competent services of the EAEU member states, enterprises of third countries were included in the registers of the Customs Union," the agency said in a statement.
As noted on the Modex Facebook page, in 2021-2022, dairy products worth $15.3 million and $30.1 million were exported from Armenia to Russia, which is 1.9% and 1.3% of exports from the Republic of Armenia to the Russian Federation, respectively.
In this commodity group, mainly cheese is exported from Armenia to Russia (89.8%, 2021), and the sharp increase in butter and dairy oils in 2022, according to agency experts, may be the result of re-export (mainly from Iran).
<The price of our <sovereignty> or protecting our interests (joining the ICC) is the damage that our economy will suffer from these and other similar decisions," Fanyan wrote on his Facebook page.
The Economist urges the Armenian government and private companies to take steps to diversify exports, including: create opportunities to promote exports under the auspices of Enterprise Armenia or as a separate agency; sharply increase spending on promoting export diversification, emphasizing that funds for such spending are available.
