ARMENIA IMPORTED RECORD 9.2 5 MILLION LITERS OF VODKA LAST YEAR
YEREVAN, February 27. / ARKA /. Armenian companies imported last
year the record 9.25 million liters of vodka and 700,000 liters of
spirit, Avag Harutyunyan, chairman of the Union of Armenian Winemakers
said today.
Speaking at a news conference he said the bulk of vodka was imported
from Russia. According to him, the amount of imported beverages has
grown noticeably over the last two years with Armenians preferring
imported vodka to locally made.
Last year Armenian companies imported also 215,000 liters of wine,
down from 350,000 liters imported in the previous year.
Harutyunyan noted that in comparison with 2013, the past year was
quite good in terms of wine exports. In particular, local companies
sold abroad 2.12 million liters of wine against 1.4 million liters in
2013. About 90% of exported wine was shipped to Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan, which together with Armenia make the Eurasian Economic
Union (EEU).
According to the National Statistical Service, in the first ten
months of 2014 wine production in Armenia fell by 8.5% from the year
before to 4.3 million liters, while production of champagne grew by 5%
to 282,300 liters.
Also production of vodka and alcoholic beverages decreased by 6.6%
to 7.365 million liters, beer production rose by 30.2% to 22.1 million
liters and brandy production fell by 5.6% to 14.7 million liters.-0-