The Yerevan Ararat Brandy, Wine and Vodka Factory (YABWV), owned by Prosperous Armenia Party boss Gagik Tsarukyan, has opened a grape collection center in the Amasia village in Armavir Marz.

Villagers in the region seem to be pleased that they no longer have to truck their produce to points further afield. But the new center is not without its problems.

The line of trucks waiting to unload their grapes is quite long. Many drivers, waiting their turn, have been forced to sleep in their trucks. Some just turn around and go back home when night falls.

When I spoke to many of the villagers off the record they were more than willing to take the businessman turned MP to task for poor organization of the center.

When I went to turn on the tape recorder, however, the villagers changed their tune and had nothing but praise for the PAP leader.

Grandma Goveli told me she came to the center on September 30 with a truck full of 2 tons of grapes. The wait was so long that the woman was forced to return home and make it back early the following day.

She was still waiting patiently for her name to be called out at one in the afternoon.

The woman from the village of Shenavan also wasn’t sure if the center would pay her for the grapes that same day.

She was relieved to hear from others that she’ll get paid on the spot.

Hasmik Mikayelyan was another woman waiting in line to sell her grapes.

Mrs. Mikayelyan told me that for ten years she had been selling her produce to the Ararat Cognac Factory but that they have refused to buy her grapes for the past two years.

“They no longer buy from us small growers, just the large landowners, of which there are many in my community of Vanand. If they won’t buy my three tons what about those who grow less? They shouldn’t do this to our suffering people,” said Mrs. Mikayelyan.

Tornik Manoukyan, a grower from Sardarapat, was also perturbed. He too had been forced to take his produce home on the night of September 30.

The grower says he was lucky that the chilly weather kept the grapes from going bad overnight,

Mr. Manoukyan, 72, has been growing grapes all his life and selling to processing plants for the past twenty years.

He’s harvested around 8 tons this year but says that the 130 AMD per kilo purchasing price leaves little in the way of profit.