The Armenian Ministry of Economy has submitted an assistance program to the government to consider so that Armenia’s businesses can export their products to the European Union (EU) market, the minister of economy of Armenia, Gevorg Papoyan, told reporters Tuesday.

The government made such a decision amid Russia restricting the import of many Armenian products.

The minister of economy of Armenia, answering the question of how realistic the export of Armenian products to the EU is, taking into account European standards and the quality of Armenian products, said: “It is very realistic, because our exportable fruits and vegetables have a Global Gap certificate, which is one of the highest-level certificates; that is, this is what is sold in European supermarkets.

But there are other costs here; for example, transportation costs. Let me give one example. We produce strawberries using the same technologies, methods, and in the same greenhouses as in Europe. What is the difference? The difference is that a Frenchman, for example, buys seedlings from a Dutch farmer, transports them 200 kilometers, plants them, then transports the strawberries another 200 kilometers and sells them. The cost there can be a maximum of $500. In our case, we have to give $8,000 to bring the seedlings here, then we have to give another $8,000 to deliver the strawberries to Europe—and we still have to give 8.8-14 percent customs duty.

At one time, they said that we were entering the EAEU because our fruits and vegetables only enter Russia. There is no such thing now, these standards are already the highest in the EAEU, the highest in the EU, and our products meet those highest standards.

Now the transportation issues remain. We have submitted a compensation program related to this to the government today, we will subsidize our agricultural product exporters so that they can offer competitive prices to the European market.”

The economy minister said that the government of Armenia is going to spend a lot of money with this assistance program so that the country’s economic entities do not suffer.

“We will assist with very large amounts of money, we have calculated the compensation costs for each product direction. For example, in the case of flowers, 5.5 million dollars, in the case of tomatoes, 3.5 million dollars, in the case of peppers, 3.5 million dollars by the end of the year,” the minister said.

When asked which EU countries Armenia’s economic entities will be able to export goods to, Papoyan said: “All European countries, starting from Greece and ending with Germany.”

Speaking about Russia's application of import restrictions on various Armenian goods, the economy minister said that his deputy minister had recently met with Russian colleagues in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, in this regard.

According to Papoyan, the climate is very positive, and everyone wants to find solutions to the problems.

Also, the economy minister expressed confidence that after the parliamentary elections in Armenia on Sunday, the country will quickly resolve all these issues.