On December 7 the president of Armenia visited Gyumri to commemorate the victims of the 1988 earthquake. He put flowers on the monument of the innocent victims and participated in the religious ritual of commemoration.
The president also visited the sugar factory of Akhuryan. The construction of this factory started in summer 2006 and will finish soon. Serzh Sargsyan was introduced to the construction works and beet processing.
This factory is owned by MP Samvel Alexanyan. In order to build this factory the MP invested 90-92 million dollars and he will have to invest additional 8-10 to finish the works. It is planned to operate the factory in the end of May 2010.
For the purpose of recovering sugar production and sugar beet production in Armenia the government adopted the plan for developing sugar production in 2008. The ministry of agriculture, together with the governor’s offices of Shirak and Lori regions, have implemented certain projects to recover sugar production in these regions in 2010. The director of the sugar factory of Akhuryan Mr. Edward Sargsyan said that if there was lack of sugar after operating these factories Armenia would be able to export sugar to Russia and European countries. It is planned to export Armenian sugar to Georgia and Northern part of Iran as well.
The director of this factory says that the Armenian party has received an offer from Russia.
The minister of agriculture Gerasim Alaverdyan assures that the annual demand for sugar in Armenia is about 90.000 tons, which is imported from other countries. In the beginning the factory will import the raw materials, but in the future it is planned to involve 20.000 small farms and village businesses in this work, as a result of which the factory will be able to export too. The management of the factory assures that the factory will be able to employ over 1000 people. They assure that they will produce high quality sugar with low prices and will produce 220.000 tons of sugar annually.
In 2010 about 45% of the raw materials for the sugar consumed in Armenia will be used based on the domestic resources of Armenia, and the other part of the raw materials will be imported from Brazil. “The produced sugar will correspond to the European quality. The sugar imported from Brazil has good quality too though,” said the director of the factory and assured that the price for the sugar produced in Armenia will be cheaper by 30-40 dollars per ton. The factory will be able to produce about 220.000 tons of sugar every year, which is more than the domestic consuming capacity by 2,5 times.