ArmInfo. As part of an earlier meeting between Head of Food Safety Inspectorate of Armenia, Armen Hayrapetyan, and Sergei Dankvert, Head of the Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision of Russia, a significant increase in the supply of fruits and vegetables from the Republic of Armenia to the Russian Federation was recorded.
In particular, the parties noted that as of April 20 this year, 20.8 thousand tons of products were exported from Armenia to Russian, which 1.9-fold higher than the indicator of the same period last year. However, the gross agricultural output of Armenia decreased by 0.3% year-on-year in 2023, to 948 billion drams. The sector showed stagnant growth of 0.4% in 2022, slightly exceeding 1 trillion drams; a decline of 1.1% was recorded in 2021, to 933 billion drams.
In this regard, ArmInfo news agency sent a request to the Ministry of Economy to find out how such dynamics of growth in agricultural exports from Armenia to Russia are possible, given such dismal indicators of agriculture and the situation in the field in general, especially when it comes to selling products, and whether this is conditioned by re-export.
The Ministry of Economy responded that the increase in the export of Armenian agricultural products is not due to re-export, considering that in 2023, just 15.8% of the total volume of grapes, fruits and berries produced in the republic and 4.4% of vegetables and potatoes were exported. The department also drew attention to the fact that already in Q1 2024, the gross agricultural output of Armenia showed an increase of 3.7%. At the same time, the officials of the Ministry of Economy noted that they do not have data on re-export volumes.
When asked what the situation is with the sale of potatoes, since farmers from the border Vardenis previously reported that there were big problems with the sale of products, the department noted that as of April 30 this year, 1,883 tons of potatoes have already been exported from Armenia, compared to 21 tons for the same period a year earlier, that is, 90-fold more. This volume exceeds by 44.7% the tonnage of potatoes exported from Armenia for the entire 2023. The Ministry explained that in order to assist Vardenis farmers and generally stimulate exports, work was carried out with large companies exporting agricultural products.
According to the RA Statistics Committee data, in 2023, the total harvest of potatoes in Armenia was 364.5 thousand tons, which is 3.7 percent higher than last year. According to the latest data of the RA Customs Service, in the first half of last year, 728.2 tons of potatoes were exported from Armenia alone, which is almost twice as low as the figure for 2022. But potato imports increased by 69%, to 5.8 thousand tons.
