Who Will Receive the 425 Million for Subsidizing Peach and Apricot Procurement? Economist Explains

The government will allocate approximately 425 million drams for subsidizing the procurement and processing of peaches and apricots. However, economist Hrayer Kamendatyan believes that this money will not reach regular farmers.

In an interview with Panorama.am, Kamendatyan stated that the 425 million will not be given to ordinary farmers, and that the subsidies in any other form will undoubtedly be ineffective.

According to the Executive's decision, around 425 million drams will be allocated for subsidizing the procurement and processing of peaches and apricots. The official aim of the program is to mitigate the issues of crop sales; however, Kamendatyan views the matter in a broader context.

According to the economist, the current situation is a consequence of the policies pursued by the authorities, as "these people are consistently damaging Armenian-Russian relations, leading to a trade war." Kamendatyan pointed out that faced with the trade war they created, the authorities are trying to provide funds to the affected, while the fairness of distributing this money is under question.

“The financial resources will go to regional administrations; they will give it to their acquaintances and close ones, and a large part of that money will go there, thus ensuring the victory of the Civil Contract Party in the upcoming or next elections,” noted Kamendatyan.

In his opinion, the subsidies should have been directed to the farmers, but this is not happening because “the voice of the farmers has already been squeezed out; they are not of interest to these people.”

Regarding processing companies, the economist mentioned that supporting them is economically illogical, as “the processors, on the contrary, find themselves in ideal conditions, because the circulating funds they would have to spend are now being saved, having approximately 2-2.5 times more circulating funds.”

The total amount of financial resources required for the month of August is estimated to be around 425 million drams, considering the expected volumes of 400 tons of apricots and 3,000 tons of peaches. The process of procurement will be constantly monitored by the staff of the regional governors.