RUSSIA: SMALLER ARMENIAN APRICOT IMPORT
FreshPlaza, Netherlands
June 19 2007
Warsaw – Russia can remain without Armenian apricots due to the bad
harvest there. This year crop in Armenia will be reduced 2-3 times
in comparison with 2006 (harvest of apricots in Armenia in past year
was estimated at about 50 thousand MT.) These days should be the
season when green apricots are abundantly for sale on the streets of
Yerevan. This year it is not so, and a kilo of the fruits – which
usually would cost about 500 drams on the street (about $1.45) –
is selling for 3000 drams ($8.65).
According to the Garnik Petrosyan, head of the department for plant
cultivation and protection at Armenian Ministry of Agriculture the
bad harvest of apricots is caused by pouring rains during the period
of flowering. Garnik Petrosyan noted that the bad harvest of apricots
will naturally affect the prices, but it is difficult to say how much
at the moment – "prices on the internal consumer market are formed
taking into account the index of export, volumes of purchases by the
processing companies, and it is thus far difficult to say, what will
be the price of one kilogram of apricots on the market".
The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture reported also
that the processing companies buy about 5 thousand MT of apricots
yearly and next 9 thousand MT is exported. However, according to him,
the index of export is sufficiently relative, since large amount of
apricots is exported to Russia by the passenger cars or by tourists.
Russia is the basic export destination for Armenian apricots.
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