168: Armenia lost almost 3.8 billion dollars worth of exports

For the second year in a row, exports from Armenia are decreasing. In the first 4 months of last year, it decreased by more than 60 percent, this year, after such a sharp decrease, by another 3.3 percent. Last year’s decrease was 3.7 billion dollars, this year – 79 million dollars.

In total, in 2 years, Armenia lost exports of around 3.8 billion dollars.

The authorities justify this sharp drop in export volumes by reducing re-exports. In the past, when as a result of re-exports, exports increased as sharply, they did not say that it was caused by importing goods from other countries and exporting them to other countries. They attributed it to Armenia. They spoke with pride about the sharp increase in export volumes, avoiding saying that it has nothing to do with the Armenian economy and exports of Armenian goods.

Now, when the export is decreasing at a great pace, they remembered about re-exports. All the “responsibility” for the decrease was placed on re-exports. They are so deep in their imaginations that they even consider the reduction of re-exports as positive, as if Armenia or Armenian business, especially oligarchic business, did not benefit from it.

If there were no benefits from re-exports, how did a company that was sitting on re-exports become the number one taxpayer in Armenia?

When billions of dollars worth of Russian gold circulated through Armenia and went to other countries, some people made a lot of money. Taxes were also collected from it. And no matter how much we think that the fiscal effect of re-exports was not very big, both the business and the state benefited from it.

In order to justify the decrease in exports, it is hypocritical to say that the reduction of re-exports is a positive phenomenon and that it has given almost nothing to Armenia. Another thing is that they could not use that advantage for the development of Armenia’s economy.

Even now they say that the exports have decreased, but the supply of Armenian goods to foreign markets has increased. At what expense did they increase, that is still a question. To get the answer to that question, you just need to open the list of goods exported from Armenia and see what happened. According to official data, in the first 4 months of this year, goods worth 2 billion 327 million dollars were exported from Armenia. Last year, 2 billion 406 million worth of goods were exported. Exports decreased by 79 million dollars this year.

Against the background of that reduction, the export of raw goods has increased dramatically, as a result of which the authorities are trying to create the impression that the export of Armenian goods, unlike the general export, has increased. It has increased, but only at the expense of the fact that the export of raw materials has greatly increased. If in the first 4 months of last year, 307 million dollars worth of mineral products came out of Armenia, this year the supplies of the same products reached 585 million dollars. The increase was more than 190 percent.

This year, 278 million dollars more raw goods were delivered from Armenia to other countries.

We are talking about metals, the sale of which in foreign markets has never had any problems. Those products have always had a high demand and buyers, both in the European market and in any other market. The increase in the export of Armenian products was mainly due to the export of mineral products, in particular, copper and molybdenum concentrate.

Instead, the export of many products of Armenian origin, which the authorities prefer not to talk about, has decreased.

The export of vegetable products has decreased. In the first 4 months of this year, 5 million dollars less such goods left Armenia. The export of these products decreased by almost 7 percent and this happened at a time when restrictions were not applied to agricultural products in the Russian market. They started to be applied mainly from the end of May. And the export of Armenian products of vegetable origin started to decrease at least 1 month before that.

It is not difficult to imagine what happened in terms of exports of vegetable products after import restrictions were applied to the Russian market. It is known that up to 90 percent of these goods were sent to Russia. Now they don’t buy anymore. They go to other places little by little, no matter how much they want to create the impression that there are no export problems in other markets, they have solved the export of agricultural products.

At the beginning of the year, the export of leather raw materials and articles made from them, wood and wooden articles, paper and plastic articles, and footwear also decreased. All these are products of Armenian production, the exports of which have been reduced, sometimes very sharply. For example, the export of footwear decreased by more than 36 percent, leather goods by 30 percent, and wooden and plastic goods by 14 percent each.

The export of ready-made food products increased by only 26 million dollars, chemicals by 10 million dollars, textile products by 7 million dollars, and goods made of stone, plaster and plaster. These are the Armenian products whose exports have increased, but the increase barely reaches 50 million dollars.

The main increase in the export of products of Armenian origin is due to copper and molybdenum. If there was no such growth, it is not difficult to imagine what the general picture of exports would be like. That growth, as much as it is related to our economy, has very little to do with increasing the export potential of Armenian products.

Our economy needs a real diversification of exports and not formal increases with which they try to create the impression that Armenian products have started to flood foreign markets after the closure of the Russian market, and even if Russia does not open its market, our economy will not suffer great losses. This is a deception by which they mislead the citizens of Armenia. Armenian products are not welcomed in other markets. Even if you manage to enter new markets, it takes years to establish yourself in them. And the economy cannot wait that long.

 HAKOB KOCHARYAN

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