YEREVAN. - In 2016, Armenia exported two times more fruit and vegetables than in 2015.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Robert Makaryan, told the aforementioned to reporters Wednesday.

Overall, 143,000 tons of fruit and vegetables have been exported since the beginning of the year, this figure amounting to 73.7 thousand tons in the same period of 2015 (from January 1 to December 21).

The main sales market is as usual Russia (85 percent). To the question how reliable these data are, Makaryan stated: “I think there is no point for us in lying to anyone.”

One of the incentives to show the volume of export higher than the actual one may be the attempt to “wash away” the re-export of Turkish and Iranian fruit and vegetables.