Armenian wine industry needs reform to enable it to grow, claims head of national agency

The Armenian wine industry needs to fundamentally reform itself if it is to develop significantly, according to the head of the country’s National Wine Centre, who has presented the government with a package of recommended measures.  

“Before working out a long term development strategy for agriculture, the government should take certain important steps to develop the wine industry, to maintain grape prices and supply principles for the present season, rid the wine and brandy industry of counterfeit products (when shoddy products are sold as high quality products), and implement the land reform, ” Avag Harutyunyan was reported as saying by the Arka News Agency.  

The latter move should entail bringing into use more than 30,000 hectares of fertile land which has been abandoned for years, Harutyunyan added.   The government should allow land owners one or two years to invest in their land and use it for agriculture, otherwise the land would be seized and put under national jurisdicition.

“But of course this should be done on conditions beneficial to land owners," he said. 

 Armenia’s wine industry now has a “historical” chance to change its image, he claimed, at a time when the country’s grape production plummeted by 30,000 tons in 2018 compared with the previous year, down to 60,000 tons. In 2017, wine output had jumped by 30% to 8,852,500 litres.