Amid the economic restrictions imposed by Russia, the agricultural indicators, which had been slowly recovering in recent years, have again declined by almost 12% in the first half of this year.
According to official statistics, the Russian restrictions coincided with relatively smaller volumes of fruit and vegetable harvests in the first half of this year, and perhaps this was also the reason why the import restrictions on fruits and vegetables did not cause serious disruptions in recent months.
For example, apricots did not decrease in price, but the grape harvest is coming up, and peaches are just starting to ripen.
It is currently impossible to say what scale the problems will reach, but farmers in Armavir have already taken to the streets, claiming they cannot sell their peaches.
They are offered 100 drams per kilogram of peaches, and in a conversation with News.am they claimed that this is a small amount for their entire year's work.
The assurances of the mayor of Armavir that the government is addressing this issue do not convince the farmers.
It is already a fact that Russia's actions coincided with a larger quantity of flowers grown in Armenia.
From January to June, nearly 120 million flowers were harvested, which is almost 9 million less than in the same period last year.
Tomato producers are also facing serious problems, and statistics show that the government's efforts to find other markets have not replaced the Russian market.
Since May, the export of both flowers and tomatoes has decreased in monetary terms by almost half.
One farmer says: “What I have now is already a bankrupt greenhouse, I am bankrupt.”
Export restrictions have led to significant price reductions for flowers and tomatoes.
The price of fresh fish has also significantly decreased under Russian restrictions.
This July, the price drop reached almost 12% compared to the beginning of the year.
Despite these restrictions, Russia continues to be Armenia's largest trading partner and the main direction of exports.
In the first half of this year, a total of nearly 3.5 billion dollars worth of goods were exported from Armenia, with about 36% or more than 1.2 billion dollars entering the Russian market.
Only in June, when the Russian restrictions were already in effect, nearly 200 million dollars worth of goods entered the Russian market from Armenia.
