For a small country like Armenia, this will be a catastrophic, gross mistake. Where is it?

(90-95)% of agricultural products produced in Armenia are sold in Russian markets. That agricultural product quality properties and product appearance generally do not meet the international standards of the EU and other developed countries, and a significant part of the population in Russia is not solvent and is unable to buy high-quality agricultural products at a high price and is forced to buy our local products cheaply. Diversification, finding new markets and buyers and meeting the international standards of new countries is not an easy task. Also, if you exit the market in that country, someone else will quickly take your place.

Now, about Armenia’s EU integration. We all want to integrate into the developed and civilized EU family, it’s a very good desire and aspiration, but leaving the political part of that process aside, let’s try to see what kind of agriculture we have, do we need the EU at all or not, and will it accept us into its family or not? Today, our country’s agriculture is in a poor, underdeveloped state, in particular, more than half of the country’s arable land is degraded and not cultivated, the water supply system is in a poor state, the existing agricultural machinery is outdated, the products do not meet EU standards, etc. On the other hand, integration into the EU the process is quite lengthy and not easy.
Now let’s try to understand what is the state of agriculture in the Eastern Partnership countries that want to integrate into the EU.

in 2026 Ukraine The EU has earmarked 12 million euros for agriculture and rural development, as well as food security reforms. With that money, the EU will support small farmers and help Ukraine’s legislation and practices to bring agriculture, food safety, animal health, phytosanitary policy into line with EU standards.

in 2026 to Moldova By allocating 60 million euros of financial support, the EU is financing the adaptation of Moldovan agricultural products to EU standards, the active integration of farmers into the EU market, turning Moldova into a major exporter of agricultural products, particularly plums. The EU supports the modernization of Moldova’s agricultural sector with grants and loans.

In previous years of Georgia the EU has made large financial investments in the field of agriculture. Currently, it is actively modernizing through the ENPARD program, supporting the creation of cooperatives and the introduction of European quality standards. Georgia has EU candidate status and the DCFTA agreement gives it access to the European market, although political processes affect the pace of integration. The EU is actively supporting Azerbaijan to the agricultural sector, financing projects for small farmers, cooperation with Slow Food, and is a major lender. However, the EU’s strict sanitary regulations often prevent certain products from being imported.

Now let’s try to see how the political processes in some of these countries affected agriculture.

In order to support Ukraine, the EU allowed Ukrainian agricultural products to enter the territory of EU countries without restrictions (without inspection and taxation) and for sale. The latter provoked the anger of farmers in EU countries and became one of the main reasons for the implementation of EU farmers’ demonstrations. In order to support Georgia, when Georgian wines were sent back from the Russian markets, the EU allowed these wines to enter the territory of the EU countries without restrictions.

Perhaps, Pashinyan was also promised in the EU to allow the import of Armenian fruits and vegetables to the EU markets, but the question arises: how competitive will the Armenian fruits and vegetables be in the markets of the EU countries, and will their selling prices be profitable?

2025 in August, Azerbaijan sent a large shipment of tomatoes by truck to Russia for sale, but Russia did not accept it and sent it back, after that the shipment was sent to the EU country Bulgaria, but the EU did not accept it, citing that it did not meet EU phytosanitary norms, and the trucks overloaded with tomatoes had to return. As a result, a large batch of tomatoes spoiled and was thrown away. The same process is being carried out in Armenia today, and a large batch of tomatoes from Armenia was sent back across the border.

Some people jokingly say: let Armenia send its tomatoes to Azerbaijan “Trump’s way” and Azerbaijan send its tomatoes to Armenia in the same way. Russia has announced that it will apply the blockade to any fruits and vegetables exported from Armenia.

Since 2014, Russia has implemented an embargo, banning the import of a number of food products (beef, pork, poultry, sausages, seafood, vegetables, fruits and dairy products) into Russia. The farmers of the EU countries came out against that decision. They were also dissatisfied and started protests against the import and sale of cheap and low-quality agricultural products from the MERCOSUR (South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, etc.) associated common market to EU countries.
Summing up, I should mention that I am of the opinion that we should not escalate relations with Russia, we do not want to get involved in the Russia-West conflict, instead, we want to have good relations with all countries, and Leaving Russia’s agricultural market at once for a small country like Armenia would be a catastrophic, gross mistake, as a result of which our country’s economy could collapse.

Sargis Sedrakyan
Chairman of Farmer Movement NGO,
Strategic programs
Chairman of the Civil Cooperation Network

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