When Armenians say meat, first of all they refer to sausage. Today, there are more than 40 large and small sausage-producing factories in Armenia. Of course, most of them are “so-called” factories because they don’t have much production.
We can even say that there are too many sausage countries in a small country like Armenia. A couple of medium sausage factories can satisfy the needs of the people, especially since sausage and in general meat are still considered to be expensive and not accessible to everyone in Armenia even after the first years of independence. But it’s a good thing that there is competition in meat production. In general, there is competition in all fields of agriculture of Armenia, which has not only helped stabilize the given field, but also has helped it stay in the market. It’s clear that not all meat produced in Armenia can be considered high-quality. The production is mainly based on the frozen meat received from abroad. Besides that, due to the large consummation and no profit, local producers aren’t able to import new technologies and flowing lines. That’s why the local producers can’t compete with well-known, foreign companies. Nearly 90% of the products of all the factories is consumed in the internal market. The rest is exported to mainly Russia and very little to Georgia, Ukraine and the United Arabian Emirates. Small amounts of meat products are also imported from Russia and some from Finland. The rich are the ones that mainly buy the imported meat products because imported meat products are higher in quality and thus are more expensive. In order to amplify their activities, sausage producers of Armenia have started to increase the variety of products, starting out with the increase in semi-factories. But that’s still not enough for to do many things because both the Armenian market and the amount exported are small. It’s hard to get a spot in the Russian market because the country is considered to be the home of sausages and, as we all know, there is problem with transportation to get the meat products exported. Despite these limitations, Armenian producers are full of energy and have a great imagination. They create new methods, so that at least they can amplify their production a little. Recently, Armenian farmers started to produce a new type of meat-jerky. It’s a rather interesting type of meat and it’s worth paying attention to. I’m sure that many still haven’t tried it. Jerky is mainly eaten with beer.
“Jerky is considered to be the food eaten by American cowboys. Earlier the Indians prepared jerky. They used to cut the meat or hang the skinned animal, light a fire beneath it and barbecue it for a while. Jerky production is new in Armenia and besides producing, we have come up with a new kind of jerky, which goes perfect with beer. Eating jerky with beer is something new for Armenia,” says executive director of the “Bekon” meat-producing company Karen Markaryan.
Currently, cheese is produced the same way in Armenia-the “Suluguni” cheese, which is also tasty when eaten with beer. Although it’s only been three years that this delicates has been produced in Armenia, however there is not much production; it’s so small that producers are afraid to mention just how much the production is. They mainly sell the cheese in beer houses and similar places. In general, jerky is the “destiny” of beeer because jerky sales go up parallel to beer sales in the summer. Everyone knows that beer sales go down in the winter. According to meat producers, jerky sales go down by 50% too. Beer lovers have a hard time deciding whether to eat jerky, barbecued fish or salty sticks. Producers got clever and came up with pig meat with the taste of fish. The look of it doesn’t say anything about the fact that it’s prepared from pig meat and fish. For those who have already tried eating jerky with beer, they’ve forgotten about the salty sticks. Producers say that jerky is sold in many stores of Russia. “Many Russians have loved the Armenian jerky served in Russian restaurants. Russians also produce and import, but that’s a different kind of jerky; it’s wet like sausage. Our jerky is dry and is perfect to eat with beer. If we manage to export the jerky abroad, we will have a lot of profit,” says Karen Markaryan. “Unfortunately, we can’t export it to Russia because it has to be barbecued. Russia only accepts heated meat products,” says the representative of the “Bilyan” meat producing company. It’s worth mentioning that in order to make their meat products more tasty and attract a lot of people’s attention, Armenian meat-producing companies have added a couple of flavors to the meat, including olives and mushrooms.