Absolute Misinformation and Not Corresponding to Reality: AHA

The Food Safety Inspection Body reports that the claim circulated by certain circles stating that "the Armenian side is obstructing the export of agricultural products to the Russian Federation" is absolute misinformation and does not correspond to reality.

The State Food Safety Inspection Body does not, at any point, limit its functions but conducts regular control over the plant health inspection products, including fruits and vegetables exported from Armenia, by sampling each batch to determine contamination by quarantine harmful organisms.

It is noted that considering the seasonal activity of exported loads, the State Food Safety Inspection Body has been working during the weekends as well, reducing the waiting time for the exported loads and speeding up the testing process.

Regarding concerns of the quality of exported agricultural products, it is stated that while quarantine harmful organisms are not dangerous to human life and health, they can pose risks to the agriculture of the exporting country. Following the same principles, imported agricultural products in Armenia are also controlled to protect the country’s agriculture from plant diseases.

Overall, the inspection by the State Food Safety Inspection Body has also tightened controls for the domestic market. Ultimately, as a result of border control, many batches of agricultural products receive plant health certificates and hundreds of trucks cross not only the Armenian border but also swiftly pass the Upper Lars border point between Georgia and Russia.

Only the export of those loads that contain detected quarantine harmful organisms is prohibited; however, very few of these trucks spend "days" at the border checkpoint. The batches of agricultural products in these loads are already damaged from a agricultural standpoint and are of low quality, therefore their halting cannot cause new damages.

This rigorous inspection has resulted in a significant decrease in plant health discrepancies within exported loads in the first half of 2024, compared to 2023. Consequently, there are no difficulties in importing products into Russia or elsewhere, directly contributing to the increase in the volume of exported goods.