On April 27, 2021, within the framework of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021, the first two-stage dialogue on establishment of sustainable food systems through Inclusive Value Chains took place in Yerevan.

The national leader of the Armenian summit, the RA Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan emphasized that the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit is a platform to generate influential ideas, where the country’s priorities for food systems and the most effective ways for their implementation will be clarified, as well as Armenia’s prospects.

“Today, 4 billion people worldwide work directly and indirectly in the food system, of which 690 million are malnourished. The forecast is that due to the COVID-19 pandemic this number will increase by another 100 million people. At the same time, 80% of the world’s extremely poor population live in rural areas and are engaged in agriculture. Drastic actions are needed in this area”, said the Deputy Minister of Economy.

The year 2020 forced everyone to review and evaluate their national capabilities, consider new opportunities, as well as undertake sustainable measures to ensure the smooth operation of food systems. The Deputy Minister added that it is necessary to initiate measures to ensure the accessibility of healthy food throughout the country, in order to reduce post-harvest losses and create new logistics chains and a good environment for agricultural systems through reuse, processing, and residue management approaches.

The Coordinator of the National Dialogue, the Rector of the Armenian National Agrarian University Vardan Urutyan said at the opening of the event that the current method of food production and consumption has a negative impact on the population’s health and welfare, environment and natural resources, being accompanied by concerns related to biodiversity loss, water resources scarcity, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and food waste. He expressed hope that these dialogues at the national level will lead to establishment of national directions of longstanding food systems and formation of a roadmap for the forthcoming actions.

In his speech, the UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia Shombi Sharp noted that Armenia’s views, needs, and priorities are communicated to the world through this dialogue, turning into concrete activities and programs. “I am optimistic that in this unpredictable world we will achieve sustainable food systems by the results expected from this and the second dialogue," said Shombi Sharp.

Within the framework of the Summit, panel discussions were held on resilience of supply chains of agri-food production and food security, which are in line with the five goals of the Summit: ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all, transition to longstanding models of consumption, increase of production volumes of environmentally clean products, promotion of available livelihoods, and increase of resistance to vulnerability, shocks, and stresses.

The Summit also provided an opportunity to follow the discussions online by live connection from the Ministry’s Facebook page.