YEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. High level guests at the XVII Summit of La Francophonie in Yerevan were especially impressed with Armenian wine and brandy, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at today’s Cabinet meeting. He said that it was important and good news for him.

“Leaders of countries that are considered global winemaking leaders were present at the summit. It was very pleasant for me that the French president and first lady found it noteworthy to express on the occasion of the quality of Armenian wine and cognac, of course in heir vocabulary the brandy, which is very good, and not only them. Our wines and cognacs have made a very good impression, which means that we have been able to achieve a certain international standard of production of wine and cognac. We must encourage our producers, and the government must take all means to be able to support them for accessing new markets. I believe at this moment the largest obstacle for it are the production volumes, and it is also with these kind of investment projects that we should support our winemakers and cognac-makers for increasing production volumes,” Pashinyan said, adding that on the other hand issues with the volumes of processed grapes in Armenia can also happen in mid-term prospects.

He said that the agriculture ministry should work intensively in order to elevate the culture and quality of processing grapes, the volumes of vineyards, as well as the anti-hail protection and irrigation issues to a proper level, because “obviously winemaking is a very promising branch”.

He said that the cognac production branch is well accomplished, but pointed out issues connected with it. He said that fake Armenian cognac is being sold namely in the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union. He called for serious supervision in this area.

“Overall this is a very good tendency that today at this Cabinet meeting we are mostly discussing investment projects relating to industry, which means that we are entering a cooperation area with the business sector, meaning we continue deepening our cooperation,” he said, adding that soon the government will have discussions with business representatives about amendments in the tax code.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan