[ad_1]
The alcoholic beverage, distilled from white grapes and known as cognac in the former Soviet Union, has long been one of Armenia’s main exports. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has been its main buyer.
Russia’s official news agency TASS reported on Tuesday that a group called “Anti-Contract” collected 200 samples of brandy produced by major Armenian alcohol companies and sent them to Russia’s state laboratory for testing. The group said laboratory tests found that 90% of them did not meet Russian safety and quality standards. In addition, according to “Anti-Contract”, “non-wine” was found in nearly half of the samples, making them “counterfeit alcoholic products.”
Citing these findings, the organization called on Russian authorities to “implement additional controls on alcohol imports from the Republic of Armenia” and “restrict the circulation of products that do not meet quality standards.” The authorities have not yet publicly responded to this call.
The TASS report, which was picked up by many other Russian media outlets, came at a time of strained relations between Russia and Armenia, with some Armenian commentators seeing it as another warning from Russia that the Armenian government will pay a heavy economic price for continuing to move closer to the West.
Speaking to reporters, Papoyan declined to comment on possible political motives behind the anti-contract allegations, stressing that Russian government agencies had not yet contacted Yerevan about the allegations.
“So far, we have not faced any problems with exports and sales. [of Armenian brandy.] We didn’t receive any alerts. [from Armenian exporters,]” the minister said, adding that therefore the Armenian government would not comment on the TASS report.
Russia absorbs an estimated 80% of Armenia’s brandy production. Armenia’s brandy exports to Russia were reported to total $180 million in 2021 and are likely to have increased since then.
Brandy companies are the main buyers of grapes grown by tens of thousands of Armenian farmers. The largest of these is the Yerevan Brandy Company, a subsidiary of France’s Pernod Ricard, a global wine and spirits producer.
Russia is also a major export market for Armenian agricultural products and prepared foods. Just over a month ago, Russia’s agricultural supervision agency banned 16 Armenian companies from importing fresh fruits and vegetables, saying that the pesticide residues in these fruits and vegetables exceeded the maximum pesticide residues allowed in the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
Armenia’s food safety inspection agency is busy addressing Russia’s concerns, promising to step up laboratory inspections of agricultural products and investigate Armenian companies and individual entrepreneurs blacklisted by Moscow. Representatives of Russia’s food safety watchdog are set to visit the South Caucasus country in the coming days.
Armenia’s fruit and vegetable exports totaled $182.5 million last year, with the majority going to Russia, government data show.
[ad_2]
Source link
