According to the customs information of the state income committee, 4,188,000 were imported to Armenia in 2010. In the first half of this year 15,100,000 eggs were imported to Armenia.
This means that during the first half of this year three times more egg was imported to Armenia rather than during last year in total. This information is available in case when one cannot find at least one egg with a foreign country stamp of production. Thus, there is no other logical explanation rather than the idea that the local companies import foreign egg, put their stamp on it and sell in shops as eggs made in Armenia. Accordingly, there is no guarantee that the imported egg that is sold here has good quality or is not outdated either.
Before the New Year time there was a deficit of egg in the Armenian market, as a result of which the prices went high and reached 120-140 drams. Producers were explaining it with the fact that as a result of slump of prices of egg in the local market during summer the mature hens were slaughtered and sold as meat, thus the production capacity could not meet the demand of egg. During the mentioned summer 2010 the price for one egg went down to 10 drams for one egg. At that time some companies were not able to overcome the crisis and sold their companies to Khachik Khachikyan’s Arax and Yerevan Poultry companies, which are dominant in the market now. What was the reason of the price reduction in summer 2010? According to our information, at that time the ministry of defense announced that Khachik Khachikyan’s X-Group was the winner for the competition to supply egg to the army. This company made a lot of profit on this agreement with the defense ministry and decoded to sell the other part of eggs in the local market for dumped prices. As a result of this trick the other companies suffered as they did not have such agreement and could not sell their products several times cheaper than the net price. As a result of this process X-Group became a dominant in the market. At that time there were rumors that a process of monopolizing the sector of egg was going on. Some experts even said that the mentioned company was implementing a dumping policy. Such statement was also made by the German GTZ organization in Armenia, who also confirmed that fact that in this sector a dumping policy was being implemented. However, the state committee on protection of economic competition analyzed the situation and announced that there was no dumping and the reason was the over-production. If more eggs were produced as the demand, why there was a deficit in several months after that?
Experts say that this year egg will become even more expensive and the price for one egg will be 100-120 drams. According to many egg producers, the net price of the domestic egg is higher than 50-60 drams. They assure that these companies cannot survive with losses for a long time and will act like many other companies and will sell the mature hens as meat, which will again result in crisis in the market of eggs. Almost all companies import the feed and medicines for poultry production from Ukraine as they are much cheaper there. Last year the owner of Lusakert poultry company, ex-MP Khachik Manukyan announced that it was easier to import egg rather than work and produce in Armenia as the profit was almost the same with less efforts. This may result in annihilation of the domestic egg production, however the imported egg is very suspicious to several reasons. First, it takes 7-8 days to import egg to Armenia. Experts say that after taking eggs out of fridge, it can stay in normal conditions maximum five days. If the eggs are brought to Armenia from Ukraine during seven or eight days, it means that the eggs are already spoilt. What is the role of the food safety department? We don’t understand what they are doing and why they are paid for. We have tried to contact the head of the mentioned department Abram Bakhchagulyan but with no result. Currently mainly Lusakert (this company has been bought by Getamej company, the owner of which is Rafik Sargsyan) and Arax companies. However, no one has seen any information on any eggs showing that those eggs have been imported. We don’t understand where those eggs were lost. From time to time different non-governmental organizations in charge of protection of consumers’ rights make noise about food safety but nobody pays attention to them. The president of the consumer’s union Armen Poghosyan told our newspaper the following: “We have not seen foreign egg in the Armenian market either. If during the first quarter of this year 15 million eggs were imported into Armenia, it is a tragedy and disaster. This means that the economic policy is very poor and does not support the domestic producers. In May-June of last year we saw how a couple of companies were punished for wrong behavior. In fact it was not the responsibility of the commission on economic competition and it was the responsibility of the food safety department. If you are imposing the same penalty on small and large producers, it means you are taking a lot from small producers and giving a gift to the larger ones that occupy 38% of the market. This is exactly what they did. A number of small companies were shut down and others either changed their profiles or lost a part of their production, which resulted in need of import. The example was the crisis before the New Year.” Mr. Poghosyan says that the situation in the market of egg shows that the government does not support domestic production. In answer to our question where the imported eggs are consumed he said, “I can’t say. I may assume that they keep it in reserve. The investigation bodies should be in charge of that. If they are keeping as reserve, it is a crime because egg is a product that is spoiled after a while.”
By the way, the first deputy of the agriculture minister Grisha Baghiyan has announced that this year the capacity of egg production in Armenia has been cut down by 20%. During the first seven months of this year 380 million eggs were produced. The deputy minister says the reason is the fact that hens were sold as meat and also at some small companies hens were lost because of disease.
P.S. This year the defense ministry’s competition has been won by Arax poultry company that belongs to Khachik Khachikyan, who is importing large quantities of egg and tends to be a monopolist in this sector. According to experts, annually one person consumes 210 eggs. Currently in Armenia one person consumes 284 instead of 210 eggs. Armenia is in the fifth place in the world with egg consumption capacities per person.