Armenia to start harmonizing its agriculture with EU standards in 2013

YEREVAN, December 27. /ARKA/. Armenia will start harmonizing its rural products with European standards in 2013, the country’s minister of agriculture Sergo Karapetyan told ARKA Agency.

Serious efforts are currently made toward harmonization. The state food safety service set up last year has departments dealing with development of standards and compliance requirements, the minister said.

The harmonization consists of three stages: first, training of specialist, second, upgrade of technical facilities to make analyses of any type, and third, approaching to the EU standards.

“First of all, this is important to ensure food safety for the population and to ensure exports. We cannot say we don’t know what we eat, but often products appearing on the stalls have no labels and expire date on them, producers cheat sometimes, whereas this system will help exclude cases like that,” Karapetyan said.  -0-