For the third month now, Armenian producers are unable to export their products to the Russian market. Russia has imposed restrictions on the export of goods from Armenia. According to the Russian side, the reason is the quality of goods exported from Armenia.

As a result of this decision, the Armenian producers faced a problem, from time to time they carry out protest actions, they demand the Government to solve the problem, because the product is just dumped, but there is no solution.

The government is talking about exporting to the EU market, but the producers are countering that very little is exported to the EU market, which means that they have to negotiate with the Russian side to enter the Russian market.

Today, how open is the EU market for Armenian products, does Europe have a demand for Armenian products, and in general, can Armenia replace the Russian market with the European market in terms of export volumes?

Chairman of the Republican Union of Employers, economist Gagik Makaryan answering these questions explained that, firstly, the European market does not have a particular demand or prominence for any product.

In other words, what Armenia offers to the EU market and that market is trying to meet that offer, it is simply doing it to help balance the demand of the EAEU market to a certain extent.

“Thus, in order to further weaken the Russian factor and further reduce the role of Russia.

The EU market is so diverse, and so many countries are trying to enter that market, including Turkey itself, which is enough to provide everything in the field of agriculture, not counting African and European countries. Let’s not forget that there are countries with a fairly high level of agriculture in Europe, including France, Germany, and Spain, which are able to provide large agricultural products.

Now about Armenia, when we talk, for example, about our apricots, the latest exports and professional analyzes have already shown that there is no significant demand, and it’s not like in the EU they say, well, if it’s an Armenian apricot, then it’s the best, we should take it, etc. of 168.am Gagik Makaryan said in a conversation with

According to him, the Armenians living in Europe, the Diaspora Armenians, can play an important role in the export of Armenian products to the European market. They can present Armenian products well with their speeches in different places, they can also become buyers. However, there is no activity on their part due to the fact that Armenia’s ties with the diaspora have weakened quite a bit, as a result of which the cohesion of the diaspora has weakened quite a bit. Diplomats can also play an important role.

“The same can be said about the Armenian Apostolic Church: the churches in the Diaspora, which could have done a great job, are not active or have become more cautious after the recent events.

When the EU announced that it allows 80 percent of Armenian products without customs duties, the Deputy Minister of Economy clarified that these are also the products included in the “GSP” list and agricultural products, there are 6200 types of products in the “GSP” list. These are various products, starting from clothing, mining materials, and other things.

Now Armenia can take advantage of this opportunity, if, of course, it can meet several requirements. First of all, we must have these requirements in order to be able to sell them, if they are not produced in Armenia, therefore, we cannot export them. Even if we have it, the quantity of most of it is so small that it may not provide large volumes,” added our interlocutor.

According to Gagik Makaryan, in terms of agricultural products, Armenia should ensure the existence of food safety management, ISO-2020, “BI AR SI” packaging standard, etc. The third factor also refers to transport logistics, which are longer and more expensive, which are not adapted and tested for all products. In other words, is the product, which has to travel for 7-8 days, able to maintain the appearance of the product, in particular, it refers to agricultural products?

“The fourth problem is that we don’t have contracts, no matter how much European countries want to help. Europe is not in the habit of making changes or planning anything in the middle of the year, they did it last year. For example, in France they plan 6 months in advance. Therefore, it is not the case that in May they raise noise for help in Armenia, and in June Europe says: we will help you.

The next problem concerns the entrepreneurs, they must have that knowledge, the will to read and study the laws in order to familiarize themselves with the international arbitration laws, the requirements of the conventions, the main EU directives, trademarks, their requirements, etc.

We have exported few products, they should at least study this experience. Unfortunately, state bodies do not draw appropriate conclusions from this. The culture of working with outsiders should be improved. We also have problems with working with the United States, because the requirements are different there too,” emphasized Gagik Makaryan.

Speaking about the Russian market, the economist stated that the Russian market is very large, the population is large, which is almost more than 30 percent of all the countries next to the EU.

In addition, Russians like to spend, especially until recently, when there was no inflation, they have funds, they made money in various ways, etc.

“Under such conditions, our volumes will never compete with Russian volumes, if we export 53,000 tons of apricots, and in the best case, we did not export 5,000 tons to Europe, as for other products, 1-2 percent is already exported.

The government should carry out very intensive works, but look at what it is doing, it says: I will subsidize, and you take it away. In principle, it seems that everything is fine, but there is no driver, or the product is not available. The government should go down further, it seems to be market relations, it should not interfere, but it should intervene, count the number of products more accurately, regulate the requirements for drivers, technical requirements for cars, etc.

Let me give a simple example: for example, the onion harvest is suffering in France due to the heat, our diplomacy should have run and said to export onions from Armenia, they should have tried to determine the price and other possibilities. For the third year, I say: develop the institute of air cargo transportation, it is enough to stick only to cars, because they can deliver a large amount of goods in a few hours by plane. We are talking about cargo planes,” emphasized Gagik Makaryan.

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