Ministry of Economy of Armenia denies that growth in agricultural  exports is due to re-exports

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.