Armenian fish products are uncompetitive on the Russian market and the republic's participation in the Eurasian Economic Union does not solve this problem, Artur Atoyan, Head of the Union of Fish Breeders of Armenia, told media on Monday.
He said that the fish output in the republic and the fish exports to the Russian market have dropped. Armenia's competitors in Russia are Turkey and Karelia, whose fish prices are lower. Atoyan added that the domestic sales have also dropped due to the falling demand. Moreover, he assured that due to the low demand, the producers have to sell the fish at lower prices than the prime cost. Today 1 kg of trout is sold for 1,400 AMD versus 1,800 AMD in the similar period of 2014. Atoyan pointed out that the fish prices rise in winter and drop in summer, as a rule. In this light, one should expect the producers to suffer even more losses in summer. He said that the producers are unable to reduce the prime cost of their products without the state support, because the fish food prices have grown since early 2014 and the Armenian authorities have toughened the requirements to the use of water resources for fish breeding.
When asked by ArmInfo to confirm his concerns about the drop in the fish output and sales by specific figures, Atoyan said that he has no data and even if he had some data, nevertheless, he does not trust official statistics. He said that the Union includes 83 medium-sized and large fish farms and all of them complain about reduction of output and sales. In 2014 Atoyan told journalists that the Government's intentions to save water on the fish farms would result in closure of the farms.
Meanwhile, the National Statistical Service of Armenia says that in 2014 the gross fish output grew by 24.6% versus 2013 and totaled 28,650 mln AMD. For its part, the Customs Service says that in Jan-Sept 2014 fish exports from Armenia grew to 1,653 thsd tons versus 1,410 thsd tons a year before. The results of the entire year 2014 have not yet been summed up.