The record high harvest of milling wheat - up to 360 thsd tons is expected in Armenia in 2014. At the same time, import of wheat is still growing, chairman of the Agrarian Union of Armenia, Hrachya Berberyan, said at today's press-conference.
"I cannot understand, why, having a record high harvest for the 9 months of the current year, we imported 46 tons of wheat and 10 tons of flour", - Berberyan said. It was announced at the top level that in 2020 Armenia will become by 60% self-sufficient in production of the milling wheat. The annual demand for the milling wheat does not grow and amounted to 500 thsd tons. "If we trust in statistics,we have already become self-sufficient by 68%, although the year of 2020 was fixed to reach this goal. I have started understanding nothing in agriculture which is sick in Armenia",- he said. He also added that bread prices have been growing in Armenia, 1 kg of bread costs 400-450 AMD, whereas they buy wheat from a farmer for 130-140 AMD. The expert thinks that a farmer is simply deceived.
He wonders why import of agriculture production grows in Armenia parallel to the growth of local agriculture production. For instance, 1 million of chicken were imported to Armenia for nine months of the current year, milk powder import grew by 1 ton and eggs by 2 million units, he said.
"At the same time, about 3 thousand cattle were exported from Armenia. If we fight for the growth of milk and meat production, in that case, why do we increase import?", - he asked.