STATE SUBSIDIES TO PROMOTE PRODUCTION OF ECOLOGICALLY CLEAN FOODSTUFFS AND GOODS IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 28 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, NOYAN TAPAN. Problems of food and foodstuffs safety
were discussed during the Narch 28 round table held at the Aylntrank
(Alterenative) Research Center. According to the center director,
RA NA deputy Tatul Manaserian, the percentage of citizens that suffer
from malnutrition is below 20% only in Belarus and the Baltic states
from the former Soviet republics. In his words, the use of unfair
competition by the developed countries is one of the reasons that
the agricultural food producers of the countries with a low level
of economic development are being forced out of the international
market. T. Manaserian attached importance to the Armenian agriculture
not only in terms of the high index of employment but also from the
viewpoint of the short terms for fulfilment of the requirements of
the International Labor Organization and the necessity to increase
the competitiveness of Armenian agricultural products. (In 2004,
507.1 thousand people or 46.9% of the total workforce was employed
in agriculture and forestry). RA Deputy Minister of Agriculture Gagik
Khachatrian noted that the ministry is taking steps aimed at bringing
the legislation of the production and import of agricultural production
and foodstuffs sector in line with international standards. He
considered production of ecologically clean foodstuffs and goods as
perspective for the development of Armenia’s agriculture, noting
that state subsidies will be used for this purpose. In addition,
50 mln dollars of the donor organizations have been used in order
to develop the Armenian agriculture and agricultural processing
spheres. Roza Tsarukian, Chairwoman of the Multi Agro company,
presented the company’s activities to produce ecologically pure honey
with the assistance of the RA Ministry of Agriculture.