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Livestock farmers and meat vendors have begun protest­ing the enforce­ment of rules oblig­at­ing all meat sellers and livestock producers to slaughter their meat only in approved slaugh­ter­hous­es.

Protests in the capital Yerevan cul­mi­nat­ed on 20 January when a large group of pro­test­ers picketing in front of the Gov­ern­ment building during a scheduled session of Gov­ern­ment blocked off one of the streets leading to the city’s central Republic Square.

The protests came after on 15 January, the Government’s Food Safety Inspec­torate (FSI) launched inspec­tions of all meat selling stores and super­mar­kets across Yerevan. The rules around slaugh­ter­ing animals were intro­duced by the gov­ern­ment in July 2018 but were not imme­di­ate­ly enforced.

Speaking to 1TV in a live video from one of the inspec­tions, Artur Shatvoryan, advisor to the head of the FSI, explained that the decision was never properly imple­ment­ed due to a lack of des­ig­nat­ed slaugh­ter­hous­es. 

‘Six months ago, our agency made it clear that starting from January 2020, inspec­tions would take place and the decision would come into full force.’ 

‘Special working groups have been created to help establish more slaugh­ter­hous­es, train personnel, etc.’, he added.

The rules mean that all meat vendors and super­mar­kets must purchase meat with an accom­pa­ny­ing document asserting that the meat was butchered in a licensed slaugh­ter­house. 

The document includes a barcode with infor­ma­tion including the owner of the animal, where the meat came from, which slaugh­ter­house it was slaugh­tered in, the day it was slaugh­tered, and expi­ra­tion dates. Consumers can scan the barcode before pur­chas­ing to see where the meat comes from. 

Shatvoryan said that his agency had conducted meetings with provin­cial governors and community leaders in order for them to com­mu­ni­cate the process to farmers and butchers in their com­mu­ni­ties. 

On 16 January, the FSI signed contracts with almost 30 slaugh­ter­hous­es estab­lish­ing the maximum price for the slaughter of animals. The maximum price for the slaughter of large animals was set at ֏10,000 ($21), small cows at ֏ 3,500 ($7.30) and pigs at ֏ 5,000 ($10).

The contracts also state that trans­porta­tion for livestock to slaugh­ter­hous­es will be free for farmers if they are no further than 30 kilo­me­tres from the slaugh­ter­house and are trans­port­ing more than three animals. If not, they will be charged ֏3,000 ($6.30) per animal. 

Many livestock farmers and butchers have remained unhappy with the decision. During the protest on 20 January, pro­test­ers told reporters that trans­port­ing animals was a difficult task. 

‘I can barely take my cow out to slaughter in my own yard, how am I supposed to get them on a vehicle and move them?’ one asked. 

Others said they were not against trans­port­ing their livestock but that there were currently not enough slaugh­ter­hous­es. 

‘How is a poor villager supposed to drive 90 kilo­me­tres with two pigs to reach [the nearest] slaugh­ter­house?’ one asked. ‘Where’s your con­science?’

In an interview with Azatutyun on 18 January, Shatvoryan said that the majority of the pro­tes­tors weren’t actually farmers but meat suppliers, who slaugh­tered animals to sell the meat to vendors and butchers.

‘Our inspec­tors know these middlemen’, said Shatvoryan. ‘They are working for meat vendors who with the [new documents] won’t be able to sell meat from sick or dead livestock. They will also be forced to pay taxes, thus, losing their former profit.’

In an interview with state-run news agency  Armen­press, Anush Haru­tyun­yan, head of the Infor­ma­tion and Public Relations Depart­ment at the FSI, said that strict inspec­tions were already taking place and many large super­mar­kets and restau­rants had already switched to using meat from the official slaugh­ter­hous­es.

Following the 2o January protest in Yerevan, a number of demon­stra­tors continued their protests the following day in their hometowns, closing major streets.

Several small protests were held on 21 January in Tavush, Armavir, and Ararat provinces. During a protest near the village of Mkhchyan, the Governor of Ararat, Garik Sargsyan, met with protest leaders. 

In a post on Facebook, Sargsyan said that the gov­ern­ment was prepared to listen to its citizens but insisted that ‘closing streets is not a rea­son­able way to solve issues’.  

During the meeting, Sargsyan told pro­tes­tors that there would be com­pro­mis­es and that par­lia­ment had assured him that there will be mean­ing­ful solutions to this issue. 

On 20 January, the Office of the Human Rights Defender announced that they were looking into com­plaints against the decision, specif­i­cal­ly the financial toll for farmers of trans­port­ing livestock to slaugh­ter­hous­es.

The gov­ern­ment has staunchly defended the changes and has also ques­tioned where oppo­si­tion to the decision was coming from.

In an interview with OC Media, Deputy Minister of Agri­cul­ture Tigran Gabrielyan claimed that 70% of the pro­tes­tors were middlemen who work for market meat vendors. He said the remaining pro­tes­tors were farmers who were being misled by these middlemen. 

‘Pre­vi­ous­ly, these middlemen would go and slaughter the animals in court­yards, weigh the meat, and charge the farmer, most of the time lying about the weight and charging extra’, Gabrielyan said. 

‘They would also take the byprod­ucts of the slaughter that cost a lot of money in the market and were, thus, harming the economy.’

Gabrielyan also said the gov­ern­ment was estab­lish­ing mobile slaugh­ter­hous­es that would be run by existing and future slaugh­ter­hous­es to alleviate the trans­porta­tion costs in villages far from any slaugh­ter­house.

‘We have also proposed slaugh­ter­hous­es establish certain days within the week where they will accept livestock for slaughter so that farmers know when to organise the trans­porta­tion of their animals’, explained Gabrielyan.

‘We are also going to provide ֏3 million-֏15 million ($3,500-$30,000) loans with a five per cent interest rate for estab­lish­ing new [static] slaugh­ter­hous­es’, he said. 

Gabrielyan also said the changes would provide a boost to the economy. ‘Byprod­ucts are worth a lot. Many are used in sausage and deli meat making’, he stated. ‘This can help local sausage and deli meat producers obtain sanitary afford­able ingre­di­ents, as well as boost export of byprod­ucts.’

The FSI has also remained adamant in their decision. On 21 January they posted photos of unhy­gien­i­cal­ly stored meat claiming that it will do every­thing in its power to prevent the con­di­tions shown in the pictures. 

The FSI said they had received many inquiries and appli­ca­tions about estab­lish­ing new slaugh­ter­hous­es around the country.

In a separate lengthy post, the FSI’s Anush Haru­tyun­yan insisted the problem was being addressed. 

‘As of 21 January, there are already 38 working slaugh­ter­hous­es. Six days ago on 15 January, there were only 22’, she wrote. ‘Tomorrow there will be more. Twenty more slaugh­ter­hous­es are under con­struc­tion and 27 are in the pre-design stage.’ 

‘Yesterday, we talked to a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Yezidi community. We were able to convince him and now he’s thinking about creating a slaugh­ter­house in his own community.’ 

She went on to say that in two months time there would be no village further than 30 kilo­me­tres from a slaugh­ter­house, meaning all livestock would be trans­port­ed for free. 

‘With the rise in the number of slaugh­ter­hous­es, the price will fall: it’s the law of markets’, Haru­tyun­yan stated.