David Picha, director of LSU AgCenter International Programs, speaks at Global Agriculture Hour on Jan. 13. Picha told attendees about the AgCenter’s involvement in a food safety project in Armenia. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter News Release Distributed 01/16/15
BATON ROUGE, La. – An LSU AgCenter project that teaches Armenians about food safety could help more producers and processors in the Eurasian country get certifications that will help them expand global trade.
David Picha, director of AgCenter International Programs, said the AgCenter has been involved in the project for several years. Armenian agriculture has great potential but needs significant improvement, he told attendees at the Global Agriculture Hour on Jan. 13.
Aging infrastructure and a low level of education mean most food processors in Armenia, a former republic of the Soviet Union, do not comply with international food safety standards, Picha said. That confines most of Armenia’s trade of agricultural products to Russia.
About a dozen AgCenter faculty members have traveled to Armenia in the past decade to provide training in two major food safety certification programs: GlobalGAP, which the European Union requires, and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. They also are teaching Armenian producers and processors about rules in the forthcoming U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act, which imposes new requirements for imported foods.
The National Center for Biomedical Research and Training at LSU and the Southern University Ag Center also participate in the project.
The AgCenter’s work in Armenia is done through the Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development, an Armenian foundation mostly funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. CARD is a farm service center, Picha said, that provides farmers with much-needed technical information, financing, supplies and equipment.
Armenia is a poor country, with about 36 percent of its population living below the poverty line. Three million people live in Armenia; one million live in the capital, Yerevan.
Armenia became independent in 1991, but the transition from being part of the Soviet Union to being an independent country was difficult. The gross domestic product fell 60 percent between 1989 and 1992, Picha said.
There was an “overnight shock” in the agriculture sector when the Soviet Union collapsed, Picha said. The Soviets grew fruits and vegetables on large collective farms in Armenia, processed them in local factories, sent them to Moscow and distributed them throughout the Eastern Bloc. When the USSR ceased to exist, so did Armenia’s markets for agricultural products.
Agriculture is still important in Armenia, however, making up 19.2 percent of its GDP. About 40 percent of jobs are in agriculture. But the sector is not globally competitive.
“Much of the agricultural production in Armenia is still for consumption at home,” Picha said. “It’s not processed or exported. It’s much like our country was 60 or 70 years ago on rural family farms.”
In Armenia, about 340,000 family farms average around one acre in size, Picha said. Potatoes, other vegetables and tree fruits are key crops. Families often also raise chickens for eggs and a couple of cows for meat and milk.
Wine, cognac and cheeses are Armenia’s major agricultural exports, which mostly go to Russia. Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed, which restricts trade even further. Gradually, however, Armenia is exporting to more countries, including the U.S., Picha said.
Armenia faces a challenging future. Agriculture is mostly done using old machinery and outdated production practices, and food processing plants rarely meet certification requirements for international trade.
For example, apricots are an important crop in Armenia, but yields there can be one-half to one-third lower than other countries produce, Picha said. No breeding program provides farmers with new varieties to replace Soviet-era planting stock. Armenia also has only one agricultural research university that conducts limited outreach work, so farmers are often unaware of modern cultural and pest management practices.
The aging Soviet-era factories where foods are processed have outdated equipment and technology, lack cold storage and are energy inefficient, Picha said. Those problems prevent most Armenian processors from exporting their products to the EU and U.S.
The Armenian government has made a strategic plan for agriculture that prioritizes improvements to food processing, Picha said.
“Armenia was a leader in that area in the Soviet days,” he said. “They want to try to recapture that in today’s global market.”
Olivia McClure