Two years ago, the authorities were persistently convincing that it was not necessary to grow wheat in Armenia because wheat production was not profitable. They said that wheat could be brought from abroad, there was no problem, and instead of growing wheat, intensive orchards should be established.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan personally advised the residents of Ijevan to plant plums.
Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan also justified why it was not profitable to sow wheat in Armenia. He stated that the government spends citizens' money. We cannot afford to implement programs that are economically unprofitable with citizens' money.
When citizens' money was being wasted or distributed as millions in bonuses, they did not remember the citizens. Refusing to sow wheat at the state level was justified by the fact that citizens' money was being spent.
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“If any program is economically unfeasible, we do not implement it. Instead, we implement another feasible program.
In Armenia, wheat production is an economically unprofitable process. From one hectare of irrigated land, 450,000 drams of wheat can be produced, but 420,000 drams are spent,” the Economy Minister justified the authorities' initiative to refuse to sow wheat.
Based on this justification, they stopped subsidizing wheat. The importance of producing this strategically significant product, especially for a country that has serious self-sufficiency issues, was pushed to the background, especially after Artsakh was handed over to Azerbaijan. The cessation of state subsidies halted the encouragement of wheat production, relying on imports instead.
It is not surprising that if at one time the self-sufficiency of wheat was over 50 percent, now it barely reaches 22-25 percent.
They even started to provide justifications that this strategically considered product could be replaced with alternatives if necessary.
Instead of wheat, we can eat rice, the Secretary of the Security Council advised. He stated that we need to be more flexible to prevent others from targeting our strategic products and to be very adaptable to this reality.
“We can switch from wheat to rice. Wheat can be a strategic product, but at some point, we can switch to rice and change our adaptability and have rice as a strategic product,” the Secretary of the Security Council shared his thoughts.
Two years after such masterpieces, now they are saying something different: two years ago, they did not consider it feasible to grow wheat in Armenia, and now they have decided that it is necessary to stimulate wheat production.
Recently, under the leadership of Nikol Pashinyan, a meeting was held where the “possibilities of stimulating wheat production” were discussed.
We are talking about the same wheat, the production of which was recently considered unprofitable, and they advised to establish orchards instead of wheat.
“A meeting was held under the leadership of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during which the results of the study of the wheat value chain and the possibilities of stimulating wheat production were discussed:
Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan presented details of the analysis of wheat production and import volumes, self-sufficiency levels, and wheat yield indicators, addressing the main production issues, quality assessment, and storage of wheat:
After presenting the results of the analysis and identified issues, the Economy Minister proposed solutions to the raised questions:
During the discussion, the introduction of effective mechanisms aimed at improving the wheat value chain and taking steps corresponding to current trends and developments in the sector was emphasized. The necessity of adopting a strategy for intensive wheat production was also highlighted.
Emphasizing the importance of stimulating wheat production, Prime Minister Pashinyan instructed responsible officials to map agricultural lands unsuitable for wheat cultivation, develop a draft investment program, and present it for discussion,” the government released such a statement regarding the meeting on stimulating wheat production.
What has prompted the government to return to stimulating wheat production when just two years ago they advised against sowing wheat is something that can only be guessed. But before addressing this, it is worth reminding the Economy Minister of his firm justifications that growing wheat in Armenia is unprofitable, and therefore they cannot afford to spend citizens' money on such meaningless things. What has changed now that they decided to invest citizens' money in economically unprofitable wheat production stimulation programs?
Such a transformation of the government suggests that we are expecting another difficult time. And this hints that we may soon face problems related to the import of strategically significant wheat.
As is known, wheat is mainly imported to Armenia from Russia. And the relations between Armenia and Russia have deteriorated so much recently that one day all economic and trade ties may suddenly be cut off. At that time, we will face problems not only with the export of Armenian products, including agricultural products, to the Russian market but also with the import of goods from there, including strategic products, including wheat.
