THE MARKET IS RISKY BOTH FOR PEOPLE’S HEALTH AND THEIR POCKETS, CHAIRMAN OF UNION OF ARMENIAN CONSUMERS STATES

Noyan Tapan
Apr 25 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia’s consumer market is risky
both for people’s health and their pockets. Chairman of the Union of
Consumers of Armenia Armen Poghosian expressed this opinion during
a debate at the Pastark Club on April 25. In his words, about 30%
of the consumer’s money is spent “to no avail” due to low quality of
goods and services. He said that since 2001, the Union of Consumers has
warned not to by goods made in Turkey. According to him, the Armenian
consumer should decline to buy such goods not because of their low
quality but because they are Turkish. He reminded that when the
French Senate recognized the fact of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey
imposed a ban on the import of French goods as protest. Calling on
Armenian consumers to give preference to local goods, A. Poghosian
noted at the same time that the local commodities are not perfect
either. Studies have revealed that 64% of information on labels is
not exact. Particularly, most labels do not contain information about
production and expiry date of foodstuffs, additives, in many cases
the exact contents are not indicated. Chairman of the Consumer Right
Protection NGO Abgar Eghoyan pointed out that the key problem is that
consumers are not aware of their rights. They may return and exchange
a low quality commodity in case they have a cash register check, which
is often not given to the purchaser. A. Eghoyan noted that a lot of
outdated, faked, improperly processed or labeled foodstuffs without
the appropriate certificates were discovered during a monitoring on
foodstuffs security, which has been conducted by the NGO over the
last 6 months. Laboratoty tests of 8 types of Turkish goods revealed
intestinal bacilluses harmful to human health in 4 of them. Among
these products were “Tofita” sweets and “Goldfresh” chocolate bars.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress