YEREVAN. March 27 (Interfax) – Armenia plans to reduce the production of
cognac sharply for the next two years, Armenian Agriculture Minister David
Zadoian said at a press briefing on Thursday.
“About 72% of [Armenian] vineyards have been destroyed by frosts
unprecedented for the past 100 years, and this will cause an acute shortage
of grapes over the next few years. Temperatures would drop to 32 degrees
below zero [Celsius] and would remain this low for 100 hours, so we expect
just 20,000 tonnes of grapes to be harvested this year instead of the
predicted 80,000 – 90,000 tonnes, Zadoian said.
This in turn will cause cognac production to go down during the next two
years, as it takes time to restore destroyed vines. Moreover, purchasing
prices for grapes are expected to double and rise to 130 drams for one
kilogram (590.23 drams/$1), he said.
He announced that in 2002 distilleries in Armenia processed 47,000 tonnes of
grapes, of which 10,000 tonnes were processed by the Yerevan distillery.
Under Armenian standards, cognac is considered Armenian only if it is made
from grapes grown in Armenia.
In 2002 the Yerevan distillery sold 3.5 million liters of cognac (against
3.09 million liters in 2001) and exported 92.5% of this amount, including
70% to Russia
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