The knitwear factory owned by the company Tosp did not close even during the years of the energy crisis - when there was no electricity during the day. In the years between 1992 and 1996 the seamstresses would start work at night and end in the morning.
"The secret is not the clay or the stone, but the artistic approach to working…," explained artist and designer Armen Atanyan, showing Mané Tiles' handmade mosaics and tiling, designed by his creative group.
After Armenian independence in the 1990s, the houses of many Tashir residents turned into small cheese factories, and Tashir - a city in the provincial region of Lori - became the city of cheesemakers in Armenia.
During Soviet years, most (about 70%) of the Armenian Swiss cheese sold in Moscow was made in the Ashotsk Cheese Factory located in the Shirak Marz, which sent 300 of the 1,500 tons it produced each year to Moscow. The location of the factory had been carefully chosen - it was built at an altitude of 2,050 meters, and milk was brought in from nearby villages, because Swiss cheese requires milk produced at high altitudes.
Although the makers of dried fruit in Armenia constantly assure us that this field is developing here, the volume of imported dried fruit is increasing every year while the volume of their export is declining. According to data provided by the Association of Dried Fruit Producers, 2004 saw the import of 919,542 kg of dried fruit (mainly raisins, figs, apricots, black plums, peaches and vegetables in a smaller amount) while 71,884 kg were...
The director of one of the few carpet-weaving units in Armenia, Mkhitar Simonyan, said that carpet weaving was on the verge of extinction in Armenia. Aida Simonyan ltd., owned by the Simonyan brothers, is located in the Gegharkunik village of Chambarak. The unit has 150 workers, but they only manage to gather around 40 carpet weavers, and that too only in the winter when people come to work there just because they have nothing else to do.