Decision Promised to Grapegrowers Approved: Details

The Government of Armenia approved a decision today without a report or discussion, which was hinted at by the Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan during a meeting with dissatisfied grape harvesters on September 28.

The decision made by the government introduces several changes to the state support programs operating in the grape procurement and processing sector. Specifically, while the existing decision subsidizes the loan amounts for agricultural enterprises that signed procurement contracts by July 1, the new decision sets a new deadline for contract signing—from September 1 to December 30, 2022. The loans will be granted with a repayment term of up to 4 years and will be subsidized by 11 percent. A grace period of 2 years is established for the repayment of the principal amount of the loan.

For processors, the amount of loans provided for grape procurement in 2022 will be calculated based on the prices specified in contracts signed from January 1, 2022, to November 1, 2022. According to government data, as of September 13, 2022, there is a problem of about 30,000 tons of grape procurement in Armenia. To resolve this, several processing companies have expressed willingness to carry out additional procurement.

Official statistics indicate that by July 1 of this year, 5,213 contracts for grape purchases had been signed with agricultural enterprises, covering a total of 117,200 tons of grapes. The government believes that changing the deadline for signing procurement contracts will allow for signing additional contracts and conducting additional procurements.

Within the framework of the state subsidy program for grape procurement, the Ministry of Economy has been allocated 15 billion drams from the budget for 2022-2023. Additional subsidies are expected to be realized within this amount. It should be noted that for 2024, a need for 530 million drams of subsidies is anticipated, while for 2025, the required amount is set at 829 million drams.

Let us recall that on September 28, grapegrowers from the Armavir region, as well as leaders from the communities of Metsamor and Sardarapat, organized a protest near the government building to raise issues related to grape procurement prices. Later, they visited the Ministry of Economy where they met with Minister Kerobyan, who promised that a decision regarding the procurement and price of the product would be made in the government the following day.