A new livestock complex will be built in the Tashir community of Armenia’s Lori Province in the near future. There is a "time capsule"in one of the cornerstones of the complex with a message for future generations:“On August 5, 2022, the foundation was laid for a new initiative to develop Armenia's economy, which will enable future generations to be provided with quality products and safe food.”
This complex will differ from other farms operating in Armenia—both in terms of its size, approach to work, and the latest technologies to be used. Pedigreed cows and pigs will be bred, and high quality dairy and meat products will be produced there.
For the construction of this new complex and the development of the complete production cycle, the Eurasian Development Bank will provide 25 million US dollars to Yeremyan Projects.
A memorandum of cooperation has already been signed between the Government of Armenia, Eurasian Development Bank, and Yeremyan Farm.
The success of the Jermuk cattle-breeding farm of Yeremyan Projects contributed to the implementation of this project. Founded in 2019, this farm breeds purebred Holstein, Fleckvieh, Angus, and Jersey cows with high-quality genetics imported from Europe, and all the necessary conditions for their living, feeding, and reproduction are provided.
This farm uses automatic water supply devices, automatic manure removal devices, ventilation system, resting rubber mattresses for cows, and automatic scrapers.
In order to obtain high-quality milk, animals need quality feed, and the latter is also produced by Yeremyan Projects. In Armavir Province, the company grows grain crops, which are then transported to the feed mill in Aralez community of Ararat Province, where they get a properly balanced combined feed from a mixture of wheat, barley, corn, soybeans, and sunflower husks in appropriate proportions.
The livestock complex to be built in the Tashir community of Lori Province will occupy an area of 29 hectares and will include farms for dairy cows and sows with a number of innovative solutions and automated systems, a slaughterhouse, land for growing fodder crops, own feed mill and fodder mixture storage.
"The cattle-breeding farm is designed for 1,200 dairy cattle, which means it is designed for 2,400 heads. We expect to receive more than 30 tons of milk per day," Davit Yeremyan, Director General of Yeremyan Projects company, told Armenian and foreign journalists.
The cattle-breeding farm will have three buildings, two of which are intended for dairy cows, the other—for meat animals. There will also be a nursery and a section for animals with problems. The complex will be fully equipped with automatic systems, including an automatic manure removal system through which manure will be transferred from the barns through pipes to special wells for later use for soil fertilization.
The milking process will be automated, as in the Jermuk farm, and the milk will be transported to the Yerevan factory by using special vehicles with a capacity of 30 tons—and by observing all safety rules.
As for the piggery, it is designed for 580 sows. It will be possible to obtain more than 700 tons of local high-quality meat from the skin of 16,500 pigs annually. Canadian purebred pigs—Landrace, Yorkshire, Duroc—imported from Europe will be kept and bred here.
The animal husbandry complex will also have a slaughterhouse equipped with modern equipment, where it will be possible to carry out the safe slaughter in accordance with all sanitary and hygienic conditions, store the meat in proper conditions, and transport it to the factory for further processing.
"This project requires an investment of 32 million [US] dollars, as the factory will also be reorganized, new facilities will be built to process dairy products," said Davit Yeremyan.
According to him, the products of both existing and future farms of the company are designed to meet domestic demand, not for export because there is a lack of quality dairy products in Armenia now.
According to Armenian Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan, this is one of the biggest projects in livestock breeding in Armenia, and it will have a great impact on the development of the agricultural sector.
"The project is quite large, worth several tens of millions of dollars, and is one of the largest projects in the livestock sector of Armenia. The government is trying to increase the productivity of both agriculture and the general economy, and this can be done in agriculture only through large farms and large projects. This project of today will have a great impact in terms of increasing agricultural productivity, increasing the quality of agricultural products, as well as setting a new benchmark in agricultural standards," said Kerobyan.
The chairman of the Management Board of the Eurasian Development Bank, Nikolai Podguzov, in his turn noted that this is one of the several projects of the bank being implemented in Armenia, and it will have a significant economic and social impact, will contribute to the creation of new jobs and the development of rural settlements—where 36% of the population of Armenia lives. Moreover, Podguzov hopes that the track-record of this project will be applicable in other countries in the future.
"The topic of food, animal husbandry development, dairy products processing is something that can be applied in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan as well; these are the countries where we are actively working. We can apply the developments of the Yeremyan company in other countries as well," said the chairman of the Management Board of the Eurasian Development Bank.
