ArmInfo. Guests from 36 countries, including Portugal, Japan, Argentina, India, and African countries have registered for the UN Global Wine Tourism Conference. This was stated by Sona Harutyunyan, Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Tourism Committee of Armenia, during a press conference on September 4.
She noted that the conference is expected to include both official events and master classes, social and cultural programs, visits to wineries, including the oldest winery, the Areni-1 cave. <All this will increase the recognition of winemaking and wine tourism in Armenia on international platforms>, she said.
The Tourism Committee is trying to involve as many wineries and market players from Armenia as possible in order to fully present the potential of winemaking and enotourism. As of today, 25 wineries have already registered.
According to Zaruhi Muradyan, Head of the Viticulture and Winemaking Foundation, Armenia has a greater heritage in the field of winemaking, starting with history and ending with our local grape varieties and terroir. "I think this is what makes us interesting and different from other countries. But no matter how we position ourselves as an ancient winemaking country, our winemaking has been experiencing a renaissance for the last 10-15 years, and we still have a lot of work to do to position ourselves in this way," Muradyan emphasized.
The head of the Foundation also noted that the issue of wine consumption remains relevant in our country. "We are still a country that does not drink wine. And this culture must change. When we ourselves feel that we are a winemaking country, then we will have success in the international arena," she emphasized. In her opinion, three days are not enough to present the full potential of Armenian winemaking. Therefore, the program was compiled in such a way as to allow guests to see and feel the heritage of Armenian winemaking and its achievements as best and broadly as possible in a short time.
The UN Global Conference on Wine Tourism will be held in Armenia from September 11 to 13.
According to the RA Statistical Committee, in the first half of 2024, Armenia significantly reduced its wine production volumes - by 38.5% per annum, providing 4.4 million liters.
According to the RA Customs Service, for the whole of 2023, Armenia reduced wine exports by 7% to 4.4 million liters, with a decrease in customs value by 2.8% to $18.3 million.
The main sales market for Armenian wine is traditionally Russia, the share of which increased from 78.8% in 2022 to 83.2% in 2023.
The USA follows far behind with a share of 5%, France - 1.6%, Belarus - 1.3%, Lithuania, Italy, Belgium (0.9% each), China (0.8%), Georgia, Italy, Poland (0.4% each), the United Kingdom (0.2%). The remaining volume was supplied to Japanese, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Greek, Canadian, Latvian, Israeli, Estonian, Danish, German, Australian, Emirates, Bulgarian, Dutch, Swiss, Ukrainian, Czech. Very small volumes (less than 1,000 liters) were supplied to Finland, Sweden, Taiwan, Norway, Iceland, Turkey, Austria, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Singapore, Cuba, Uruguay, Malta and Benin.
