Organic Production

There is worldwide growing awareness of the need to promote healthy food production, protect natural resources, educate the farmers and introduce the organic world to people.

People often do not know what organic is and think that it is production without any intervention, but it is not so. Organic foods are foods produced by methods that comply with the standards of organic farming. The standards vary worldwide; however, organic farming in general, features practices that strive to foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Processed organic food usually contains only organic ingredients. If nonorganic ingredients are present, at least a certain percentage of the food's total plant and animal ingredients must be organic.

Foods claiming to be organic must be free of artificial food additives, and are often processed with fewer artificial methods, materials and conditions, such as chemical ripening, food irradiation, and genetically modified ingredients. Pesticides are allowed as long as they are not synthetic.

The main problem is that everything is done in a proper way, as required. The Law on Organic Agriculture is approved by National Assembly of Armenia in 8 April, 2008. The Law stipulates the process of organic production and the main provisions on labeling requirements for organic products. The Ministry of Agriculture prioritized the organic production and subsequently included it in its strategic development plan.

To date a total area of 1695 ha is being cultivated organically, out of which 300 ha is certified, 450 ha is in transition towards certified areas, and 800 ha is wild collection areas by Ecoglobe LLC. The remaining 145 ha is certified by SGS Organic (Germany), which is active in Armenia since 2011.

Enlarging the production of Organic food, we increase export volumes, and will be more visible in foreign markets which is very profitable (according to Armenian exporters’ reports, totally 151 tons of organic products are exported annually).