Thursday, November 7 2019 19:44

ArmInfo.After 24 days of downtime at the Upper Lars checkpoint, without a written expert opinion, Russian customs officers returned cars with 21 tons of blue cheese produced in Armenia. The largest transport and logistics company of Armenia  Spayka LLC reports on its website.

Blue cheese is a new product of "Spayka" company, which in its  technological conditions and quality is fully consistent with the  products of the best European cheese makers. The enterprise was  opened at the beginning of the year in the presence of the Prime  Minister and the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Armenia.  Over 15 million euros were invested in its creation.

As ArmInfo previously reported, in order to expedite customs  operations, the company timely provided customs officers with all the  necessary documentation, including veterinary certificates, technical  production conditions, etc. To make it even more convincing that the  cheeses were actually made in Armenia, the company even provided  video materials on the official opening of the enterprise for the  production of blue cheese in the presence of the Prime Minister and  the Russian Ambassador to Armenia. The company hoped that Russia  would become one of the main markets for this product under the  conditions of the EAEU common customs space and with anti-sanction  measures that severely restrict the import of high-quality European  cheese into Russia and the import substitution policy declared by the  Russian Federation within the framework of the trade union.

In the opinion of Armenian experts, it seems that Armenian producers  of products cannot be guided exclusively by the markets of the EAEU  and, first of all, Russia with its unpredictable approach even to  partners in the Union. Thus, according to  head of the Export Armenia  Association of Experts Emil Stepanyan, such behavior undermines,  discredits the very idea, the essence of the EAEU as such. He  believes that the inadmissibility of Armenian cheese on the Russian  market is warning for the whole of Armenia, it is a simulation of the  situation of a complete ban on Armenian exports to the Russian  Federation. "We need to think on a national scale about stimulating  exports to third countries - the EU, China, the USA, Africa, the  Middle East," he emphasized.

At the same time, as stated earlier in parliament,  head of the  commission on regional issues of Eurasian integration Mikayel  Melkumyan, members of the commission traveled to the Upper Lars  checkpoint, during which they identified a number of problems,  including administrative ones.