Armenian government to import 5,000 tons of nitric fertilizers

YEREVAN, August 16. /ARKA/. Armenian minister of agriculture, Sergo Karapetian, told a Cabinet meeting today that the government will import five thousand tons of nitric fertilizers to ensure successful autumn sowing season.

Armenia imports about 25,000-30,000 tons of nitric fertilizers a year from Georgia, Iran and Russia.

Karapetian said fertilizers will be sold to farmers at 6,000 drams per a 50 kg sack. Prime minister Tigran Sargsyan noted that the Vanadzor-Khimprom plant is to resume production of fertilizers in the autumn.

In early July Sergo Karapetian and energy and natural resources minister Armen Movsisian signed a memorandum that committed their ministries to help the Vanadzor-Khimprom company launch manufacturing mineral fertilizers that will fully meet domestic agricultural demand.

The ministers said Vanadzor-Khimprom will manufacture 50,000 tons of fertilizers widely used by Armenian farmers and create around 300 new jobs for that purpose. Armenia imports up to 40,000 tons of nitric, potassium and phosphorus fertilizers each year.

Vanadzor-Khimprom , a Soviet-era chemical plant based in the northern city of Vanadzor,

comprises Vanadzor chemical plant, chemical fiber plant and Vanadzor thermal power plant. It was commissioned in 2005 after a long idleness. The owner of the factory is a Russian British-registered Roding International Limited, registered in Britain.

In 2011 the company manufactured 700 million drams worth goods, 2.5 times more than in the previous year. -0-