Armenian Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan recently announced a significant increase in the export of goods of Armenian origin, but a study of the data shows a different picture.

A significant part of this growth was formed at the expense of jewelry, which is highly debatable to present as a product of Armenia origin. We also see mobile phones in that list, although there is no production of phones in Armenia. All this inflates the indicators of products of Armenia origin and creates a misleading picture of the state of the economy.

On February 5, Papoyan reported on his Facebook page that in 2025, products of Armenia origin worth some US$4.5 billion were exported from Armenia. Compared to 2024, this is an increase of 10%, and compared to 2021, by 72%.

The methodology for calculating the export of goods of Armenia origin is already controversial (which we will mention below), but Hetq decided to find out more about what goods the ministry is talking about.

It turns out that out of the approximately $4.5 billion worth of “Armenia origin” products exported from Armenia in 2025, jewelry comprises $1 billion.

The problem is that this is an excessively large volume for Armenia, and it is highly doubtful whether Armenia has enough factories and specialists to produce so many products.

After the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, a large amount of Russian gold has been re-exported through Armenia, including in the form of jewelry. The fact that this is re-export is proven by the fact that after 2022, gold imported from Russia to Armenia has increased sharply, and the export of gold and jewelry from Armenia to the UAE and Hong Kong has increased equally sharply.

For example, in 2021, only $75 million worth of jewelry was exported from Armenia, according to the country’s Statistical Committee. No wonder it’s a stretch to believe that this number jumped to $1 billion in just four years.

Hetq has written about this. (The Offshore Roots of Armenia’s Jewelry Production and Export: Armenia: Re-exporting Billions of “Dirty” Russian Gold)

As a result of this dubious growth in the jewelry sector, the image of the industrial sector has also been artificially inflated.

In 2025, most of the “jewelry” was exported to the United Arab Emirates, the rest to Hong Kong.

This directly shows that Minister Papoyan published inflated data on the export of goods of Armenian origin. And if we exclude jewelry and several other product groups, such as mobile phones, it will turn out that the growth in the export of local products is much more modest.

Even if we consider jewelry to be a product of domestic origin, talking about overall growth while not providing specifics can also mislead the public.

In 2024, jewelry also occupied a large place in the list of exported “products of Armenian origin”. According to the Ministry of Economy, about $4.1 billion of local products were exported in the mentioned year, of which $0.9 billion ($858 million) or 21% are jewelry.

Here, it can be noted that in addition to jewelry, unprocessed gold was also exported. However, it is assumed that this is not about re-exported gold (the volumes of re-exported gold are much larger), but about Armenian gold, which existed before this wave of re-exports. The ministry noted that the data provided may be adjusted. What adjustments may be made was not detailed.

Does Armenia export mobile phones?

The ministry also includes mobile phones among the products of Armenian origin.

Accordingly, in 2025, 1,130 mobile phones (smartphones) were exported from Armenia to Belarus, with a total value of $24 million.

Not only is it strange that there is no mobile phone production in Armenia, but also that the average cost of one exported phone is 8.2 million drams or $21,341. This also needs additional clarification from the Ministry of Economy and the State Revenue Service.

The list of exported “local products” also includes animal feed exported to Russia, worth $18 million.

In recent years, animal feed has also been re-exported from Armenia. Since 2022, their import and export volumes have increased significantly.

Haykaz Fanyan, head of Yerevan’s Armenian Center for Socio-Economic Studies (ACSES) notes that there are no clear statistics on the export of local products even in state bodies: the State Revenue Committee and the Statistical Committee. The methodology for calculating it is debatable, and in terms of some products, it is impossible.

“The problem is that a product can enter Armenia, have some work done on it, but its external economic classifier is not changed and be exported from Armenia as a product of Armenian origin. It is debatable to call it a local product. Or there are products that are imported to Armenia from third countries (for example, from Iran), and then for some reason are exported to other EAEU countries as a product of Armenian origin. The trajectory is already lost, it is not clear which country’s product it is,” Fanyan notes.

As for specific jewelry, according to ACSES analysis, jewelry has also been exported from Armenia in the past, but many times less than the current volumes.

Even in the case of dynamic growth, today’s real local jewelry production would be many times less than the $1 billion that is presented as local production. Here too, the explanation is that Armenia does not have that many specialists and processing equipment.

"Gold imported into Armenia is exported in three forms. The first is in the form in which it was imported, that is, no processing is conducted. The second is that the same gold is assayed, stamped as of Armenian origin, and here too it is not subjected to significant processing. And the third is that when the gold standard is reduced, silver is mixed in and new, lower-grade large ingots are obtained, for example, 10-15 kilograms. These, in fact, cannot be considered jewelry since you cannot wear them. But, to accurately reflect the real picture of the economy in terms of content, we refrain from calculating these products under local production," notes Haykaz Fanyan.

Our study also showed that neither the State Revenue Committee nor the Statistical Committee separately publish statistics on the export of products of Armenian origin.

What local products does Armenia export

Based on data provided by the country’s Statistical Committee, Armenia’s exports in 2025 totaled $8.4 billion. However, due to reservations about the Ministry of Economy's list, it is not possible to accurately determine the proportion of domestic products within the overall export figures.

If we exclude those products that are manipulative to call “local,” the leaders in the export of products of Armenian origin are copper concentrate, cigarettes, brandy, precious metal concentrate, molybdenum concentrate, and ferromolybdenum.

Aluminum foil and electricity are also on the list of leading exports.

Smaller volumes are exported: flowers, fish, clothing, fruits and vegetables, mineral water, processed diamonds, etc.

In 2025, according to the Ministry of Economy, $665 million worth of copper concentrate (ore and concentrate) was exported from Armenia.

Much of the copper was sent to China, and a little to Bulgaria.

Next in terms of volume is tobacco, which amounted to $610 million. Most going to Iraq, the UAE, then Japan, Hong Kong, and Georgia. The other product group is alcoholic beverages, which includes brandy. According to the Ministry of Economy, $317 million worth of beverages was exported, the main part of which is brandy. The main buyer of Armenian brandy is Russia.

Molybdenum concentrate follows, worth $213 million, which is exported to Belgium, the Netherlands, China, etc. And ferromolybdenum is exported to the Netherlands and Russia.

Precious metal concentrate is exported from Armenia, mainly to Switzerland and Malaysia.

Hetq regularly writes about these product groups, their trends, export problems, and exporters.

China Is Top Buyer of Armenia's Copper

It is noticeable that the exports of some local products has indeed increased. For example, according to the list of the Ministry of Economy, in 2025, flowers worth $52 million were exported from Armenia, which is 47% more than the previous year. Armenia exports flowers to Russia, and in small quantities to Georgia.

Photo: Minister Gevorg Papoyan visits Aske Group aluminum heating battery production plant, May 2025. (Papoyan’s FB page).