Armenia’s economy minister to promote “Armenian wines” brand

YEREVAN, October 2. /ARKA/. Ministry of Economy of Armenia will work on promoting “Armenian wines” brand, a chief of Industrial Policy Department at Economy Minister Hayk Mirzoyan said Tuesday.

“Wines that meet specific standards will be included into this brand, and the State will support in exporting this production,” Mirzoyan added. 

According to him, the Ministry intends to increase the wine export by three times.

Mirzoyan highlighted that brand wines will contain both, Armenian and imported varieties of grape. It is also planned to open a laboratory that will monitor quality of brand wine production.

On his side, a director of “Areni Wine Festival” Fund Nune Manukyan said Armenia faces an issues with the quality of grape processing. 

“We have grape of a high-quality, but we lose some quality while we process it. That’s why we have to modernize this sphere,” Manukyan said.

Armenian experts say the Armenian wine has great potential for entering the international market. Head of the Union Avag Harutyunyan notes that historical argument must be the fundamental peculiarity of the wine brand.

In this context he highlighted the ancient Armenian wine producing fossils found in Areni-1 cave complex in south-eastern Armenia. 

Currently, there are 20 wine companies in Armenia. Some 40,000 farmers are involved into grape cultivation, 90% of grape is used for brandy production and just 10%- for wine.

In 2011 Armenia procuded 5.6 million liters of wine; 12.5% of it was exported.

Wine production in Armenia advanced 11.8% in the first half of this year from a year earlier to 1.68 billion drams. Within the reported period 1.76 billion drams were earned in wine sales, which is 32.9% higher from the fist half a year earlier.

Armenia’s wine export rose by 16.7 % totaling in 522.7 million drams.—0--