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Marine Madatyan

Tons of Crops from Armenian Villages Ruined Because Produce Sold at Triple the Price

Tons of crops grown in Armenia's villages are thrown out every year because the middlemen sell them at double to triple the price in Yerevan's markets, says head of the central Armenian town of Aramus, Hrayr Nikoghosyan (pictured).

The middlemen in Armenia's produce market purchase carrots from villagers at 100 drams (about $0.24 USD) per kilo but sell them to consumers for 250–300 drams ($0.60–0.73), claims Nikoghosyan. Angrily he explains that middlemen in Yerevan don't even know whether carrots are grown on trees or in the ground; however, they're the ones who make the profits.

"No such revenue exists in the world. There is [such a thing as] market value: you buy [it] for 100 drams, sell it for 120 drams [$0.28]. Brother, have a profit of 20%. In that case, the buyer will buy not half a kilo, but 1–2 kilos. The value of the villager's output will increase automatically," he argues. 

Nikoghosyan lists villagers' expenses in growing carrots (land tax, water bills), but the annual income for a single family does not exceed 600,000 AMD ($1,465) for 6 tons of carrots produced. Middlemen, on the other hand, only have to pay for their market stall, selling the produce they purchased at 100 AMD per kilo for at least 300 AMD/kg. 

"Who will allow an Aramus inhabitant to go sell his goods in Yerevan? Will the Yerevan inhabitant sitting there allow you to take carrots and sell them? I always say that jobs were created for people in Yerevan. Yerevan inhabitants have so much income, which the villagers don't have," he says. 

At one time, four buses would take people from the village to Yerevan to sell their harvest, but now there are no buses. In Nikoghosyan's opinion, the farmers' markets that, according to Armenia's minister of agriculture, shouldn't leave anyone "poor" in the village, are just for show. "[Only] one or two Aramus inhabitants can make use of them," he said. "There was a person in the village who had 6 tons of harvest, [but] he couldn't sell half of it. It was ruined; he threw it out."

As a result, villagers don't respond to town council announcements on sales of land. The day Hetq was in town, there was supposed to be an auction sale of three lots of agricultural land; however, only one Aramus inhabitant, Ashot Sargsyan, submitted a bid. According to the rules of procedure, auctions are held only if there are at least two bids submitted; thus, that day's auction was considered not to have taken place.

According to Nikoghosyan, the younger generations don't want to continue harvesting the arable land provided to their families when they gained land ownership in newly independent Armenia. A three-member family was given one plot of 630 square meters of land; a four-member family, 2 plots; six-member family, 3 plots; and so on. However, if the land is not providing income, it's not in demand, he explains. 

However, despite this fact, all Aramus residents scrupulously pay their land tax. The community's budget in 2013 was 6 million 735 thousand AMD ($16,443) from land tax alone. "I am very grateful. There was one guy who came to pay the tax; it was just 3,600 dram [$8.78]; I said, don't worry about it (he really was poor), [but] he said, no, I will pay because I earn income from the land," he said, adding that the only thing left is to return the market to the villager.

"You know when they say, we helped by providing fertilizer? Fertilizer is not assistance. Ok, say, we need two sacks of fertilizer; the difference is about 2,000 dram [$4.88]; say, you helped with 4,000 dram [$9.76] — you solved the villager's problem and you're done? And [then] you double the [price of] water. Just calculate one thing: 1.8–2 million cubic meters of water is used in Aramus. The five villages of this region — Nor Gyugh, Akunk, Kotayk, Katnaghbyur, Kamaris — together don't use that much water as much as Aramus uses. This village produces up to 10 tons of carrots. Helping a villager means that I produce it, so I [should] sell it," concludes Nikoghosyan. 

Comments (1)

Herepta
A classic example of how greed destroys.

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