On June 30, 2021, the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia (VWFA) took place, which was chaired by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Acting RA Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan. The Deputy Minister Arman Khojoyan and the Head of the RA Food Safety Inspectorate Georgy Avetisyan also took part in the meeting.

Welcoming the meeting participants, Vahan Kerobyan noted: “The sectors of viticulture and winemaking are of strategic importance to us, and we have a lot to do in this direction. The main objective of our today’s meeting is to discuss our goals for development of viticulture and winemaking and outline steps we must take to achieve those goals”.

During the meeting, the VWFA’s Executive Director Zaruhi Muradyan briefly presented the Foundation’s programs for 2021-2025 and noted that the VWFA’s vision is to have wines of the premium class made from endemic grape varieties produced in Armenia, which will be marked with a geographical indication and will have global recognition.

Zaruhi Muradyan presented the strategic goals of the Foundation, which are aimed at raising awareness of the Armenian wine and promoting consumption in both domestic and foreign markets. The current and future projects are aimed at developing the culture of domestic consumption in Armenia, raising the rating of Armenian wines in international markets, which, of course, will contribute to the growth of export volumes.

“Taking into account the history, culture and potential of Armenian winemaking, in terms of strategic planning key importance has been assigned to the emphasis on the peculiarities of Armenian wines”, said Zaruhi Muradyan, pointing out the problems that hinder the sector’s development, particularly referring to the lack of the unified system on quality control of Armenian wines, lack of recognition of Armenian wines and barriers related to exportation.

In response to finding solutions to challenges and existing problems, the VWFA has set a number of long-term goals, including creating the brand “Armenia’s Wines”, improving the recognizability, expanding vineyards, increasing the volumes of wine consumption in domestic market and exports to foreign markets, establishing a register of grape plantations, improving the legal framework and quality control system, capacity-building of specialists.

Among the measures aimed at development of viticulture and winemaking, Zaruhi Muradyan particularly emphasized the importance of implementation of mapping activities of grape plantations in the wine-growing regions of the Republic of Armenia and creation of the “RA Grape Plantations Cadaster”, promotion of legitimate application of the wine system marked with geographical indications, preservation of vintage, exhibition gardens and nursery available in Armenia, creation of a virus-free database of local varieties, branding the category of “Armenia’s Wines”, as well as establishment of a logistics and customer service center and online sales platform for Armenian wines in Europe.

During the meeting, the prospects of further development of viticulture and winemaking sectors in Armenia and possibilities of solving the existing problems were also discussed.