Sergo Karapetyan, Minister of Agriculture, discusses the potential of Armenia’s agriculture sector.
European Times: What are some new developments in the agriculture sector?
Sergo Karapetyan: Over the past 20 years we have transitioned to a more stable, privatized, market-oriented agriculture sector, and around 340,000 small and medium farms have been established. We have made substantial progress thanks to a number of development programmes. Our plant cultivation, greenhouse production, fishing, fruit production and cattle breeding have seen particularly strong growth. The agriculture sector grew by 9,5% in 2012 and agriculture now accounts for 19,1% of Armenia’s GDP. We need to sustain this growth, if not exceed it. One of the issues is to establish cooperation between small farming units to increase their total production.
European Times: What are some of your current projects?
Sergo Karapetyan: Since 2011, we have been supplying farmers with high-quality seeds, fertilizers and other support to help them exploit their land in the best way. An agricultural credit programme has been launched in 2011, which is subsidized by the government. Other projects include a programme financed by the World Bank to boost cattle production. As a result of such programs, the amount of land under cultivation in Armenia has increased significantly and cattle-breeding gross production, according to the data of January-November 2012, has grown by 6,1%.
European Times: What are some of the challenges for the agriculture sector?
Sergo Karapetyan: We need to increase our agricultural products’ exports, a challenge since Armenia is land-locked. We have already developed processing of wine and cognac, fruits and vegetables, and dairy and meat products. Now we are working to make our products competitive in global markets and to conform to EU standards.
European Times: What are some of your other goals?
Sergo Karapetyan: It is vital for us to encourage more young people to get involved in agriculture rather than moving to the cities. We have the potential to double agricultural production over the next five years. We also want to attract foreign investments to our agriculture and food-processing activities. There is always going to be a demand for agricultural products. We are open and ready to receive investments in this sphere, particularly from EU investors as we continue our drive to implement EU standards.
I would like to invite potential investors to come to Armenia and see for themselves what the country has to offer.
