The agricultural sector has seen a 117% growth in Armenia in the past five years, a deputy minister said on Saturday, praising the effectively developing international cooperation in both the bilateral and multilateral formats,.
Speaking at a workshop organized for journalists, Armen Harutyunyan said they have agreed on plans to launch an irrigated agriculture project in collaboration with the EU later this year.
“We are negotiating a new program with the EU for 2019-2021 to address the agriculture registers and infrastructure development. Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture is actively collaborating with international organizations, and the Austrian Development Agency to develop organic agriculture,” he noted.
The deputy minister said that the cooperation with the EU secured a funding of €38 million, of which €20 million went to budget insurance.
Hakobyan also addressed several joint projects with the World Bank. He added that their key export destination is the Russian market which sells the Armenian honey, tea and juices.
“We are making our first steps in organic agriculture to outline a format of government support starting from 2020,” he said, not ruling out the possibility of subsidies.
Harutyunyan also highlighted the increasingly competitive value of Armenia’s agricultural produce on the European continent. “Europe is facing an increasing demand for organic products,” he said.
The official promised future government efforts to boost the exports.
Minister of Agriculture Ignati Arakelyan added that the Armenian organic honey is now being exported to China.