More Sheep Farms in Armenia
It seems like anything goes in these days of global investment opportunities. Indeed, in a recent news report from Arka, the Armenian Development Agency (ADA) will be privy to a new investment program by a (yet to be named) Australian company. By next month, this will enable the set-up of sheep-breeding farms there, with a capacity of 5,000 sheep. This will take place in conjunction with regional administrations in Armenia and a “territory for building the farms will be defined.” The main goal of this program will be the “farming of genetically traditional semi-stiff-haired types of sheep in Armenia.”
Australia: Armenia’s Auxiliary
So what does Australia have to offer Armenia? According to the ADA’s General Director, Robert Harutyunyan, the Australian company is going to “introduce a standard plan of a sheep-breeding farm in the investment package,” and that later on, there will be a defining of territories for farms through the regions.” ADA’s main aim is to finally eliminate “old soviet standards,” and thereafter develop “new sheep-breeding farms in accordance with international standards.”
Additional Armenian Investment Opportunities
But that is not all. At the moment there are also a few other potential investors hailing from CIS and Arab countries that are looking into these projects with interest and are seeing Armenia as a good place. Plus it seems sheep farming is on the rise since figures for last year showed that “customs cost of 135 thousand sheep increased by 56% making about $14 million compared with 2009.” In addition, according to Harutyunyan, a cheese company in Armenia is looking into expanding its export volumes this fall, following its successful 5 ton export to Russia a few months ago.
Indeed, “if supply exceeds demand here in Armenia, greater volumes may be sent outside.” Forecasts suggest that such supply may indeed “exceed demand by 10 to 20 percent.” Russians like Armenian cheese, and according to another related Arka article, “the Armenian Cheese company was set to export 120 to 140 tons of cheese in Sept-Oct 2010 to Russia and 80 tons to the United States. However, nothing like that happened, since cheese prices jumped in Armenia, and it was decided to refrain from exporting cheese and postpone these plans for 2011.”
