A top Spayka executive, Karen Baghdasarian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on September 2 the trucks carried fruit and vegetables as they were stopped in various Russian cities without any explanation. The company will dispatch lawyers to Russia to negotiate with relevant authorities, he said, adding that the crackdown disrupted its operations essential for the Armenian agricultural sector.
Baghdasarian said on Monday that the company has still not received any explanations from Russian officials. In his words, it has not been allowed to unload more than 30 of the blocked trucks, meaning that the agricultural products stored inthem are now perishing. He estimated the resulting initial damage to Spayka at more than $2 million.
Russian government agencies, including the Rosselkhoznadzor agricultural watchdog, have still not made any public statements on the issue. The Armenian Economy Ministry also remains silent despite having been swiftly alerted by Spayka.
The Armenian parliament committee on economic issues also seems in no rush to deal with the emergency. One of its pro-government members, Sergei Bagratian, said on Monday that the panel is planning to organize a meeting with the Spayka management next week.
“They are awaiting explanations from the Russian side to understand what the problem is … and share them with us so that we discuss them jointly,” said the lawmaker.
Bagratian dismissed suggestions that the Spayka trucks remain blocked in Russia for political reasons.
“I’m sure that there is more of an economic problem, there is a certain legislative issue which, once settled, will solve the problem,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Spayka is Armenia’s leading producer and exporter of agricultural products grown at its own greenhouses or purchased from farmers across the country. It currently employs about 2,500 people.
Its trucks were reportedly intercepted two weeks after Spayka’s founder and owner, Davit Ghazarian, hosted the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Kristina Kvien, at the company’s offices and showed her around its greenhouses outside Yerevan. In an August 14 statement, Spayka said they “exchanged ideas on ways to deepen U.S.-Armenia economic ties.” The statement also pointed to the company’s participation in the SelectUSA Investment Summit held in Washington in May, saying that it reflected “the growing momentum in bilateral trade and investment cooperation.”
According to government data, Armenian exports to the United States totaled $26.5 million in the first half of this year. By comparison, Armenia exported $1.3 billion worth of goods to Russia in the same period.
Russia is the main export market for Armenian agricultural products as well as alcoholic beverages. In the last few years, Moscow has occasionally and briefly banned some of those exports on sanitary grounds construed by Armenian commentators as Russian retaliation against the Armenian government’s continuing drift to the West.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk renewed over the weekend his warnings about severe economic consequences of Yerevan’s declared desire to eventually join the European Union.
“If things go on like this, we will have to make a decision to review our economic policy in relation to that country,” Overchuk told the TASS news agency. “It is up to Armenia to decide where it wants to be. But they also understand that … we will not have free movement of goods between our countries and there will be no duty-free trade.”