RA PM Tigran Sargsyan visited Yerevan “Ararat” food factory.

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan visited Yerevan “Ararat” food factory, in particular, the juice production plant. The Prime Minister, accompanied by the RA Ministers of Agriculture and Economy Tigran Davtyan and Sergo Karapetyan, got acquainted with the company’s production opportunities and projects. The factory has been producing a wide range of natural juices since April, 2011. The product is sold to both domestic and foreign markets, thus promoting the export of agricultural products from Armenia. The plant has signed an agreement with TetraPak company on acquiring juice producing equipment, as well as packaging lines and other necessary facilities.
Raw material acquisition agreements were signed with local fruit and vegetables processing companies and for not Armenian flavors, with a number of foreign well known companies.
About 70 new jobs were created within the last year.
The second stage of the company’s investment activities are carried out in the direction of the organization of production of natural juices and nectars and bottling of the latter in glass containers, processing of traditional herbs and berries, as well as tea packaging of other Armenian flavors, processing of fruits and berries, receiving freshly squeezed natural juices, manufacturing and bottling of aerated and non-aerated soft drinks, manufacturing and packaging of dried fruits from Armenian traditional fruits and berries, etc.
The most part of the needed equipment has already been imported to Armenia, and respective agreements have been obtained for the rest and will be imported in the near future. During the second stage of the investment program the company will invest more that 800 million AMD, 5 more plants will be opened, at least 30 new jobs will be created in the first place, and in the nearest future additional 20 jobs as well.
Currently, the 2012 harvesting activities are being organized, the volumes of which will be expanded essentially. Hundreds of residents of rural communities will be involved in these activities. Apricot, peach and cherry will also be harvested. Particular attention will be focused on the herbs harvesting works.
In the third stage of the investment program (2012-2013) it is expected to import several more processing units for fruits and vegetables, so that the company is able to adapt to all kinds of Armenian fruits and berries. This will allow recycling the whole spectrum of agricultural products. This new investment volume will reach about 1.6-1.8 million Euros.
The above mentioned investments will allow creating more than 300 permanent jobs in the coming years.
As of January 2012, the company produced 2.39 million liters of product, 480 thousand of which was exported. It is expected that the production volume will at least be doubled within a year.