Beniamin Matevosyan: neither Europe nor Russia — how Pashinyan leaves farmers with nothing

(The great redistribution: what is happening to Armenia’s agriculture)

The decision by Armenia’s Food Safety Inspection Body to introduce, starting July 10, 2026, a strict ban on the export by individuals of commercial shipments of goods subject to phytosanitary control marks the beginning of a tectonic shift in the country’s economy. Officially citing EAEU technical regulations and a 5-kilogram limit for personal use, the authorities are in effect eliminating channels of informal export that have been built up over years. This decision strikes directly at small businesses and private shuttle traders, who have sustained entire regions through the expeditious export of agricultural produce. Formally, the agency promises methodological assistance and consistent oversight, but in practice this means closing the last legal loophole that allowed small producers to bypass bureaucratic obstacles in trading, not only with Russia but with European countries as well.

The timing of these regulatory changes, coinciding with heightened activity from European partners, invites a fresh look at what is happening. In these very weeks, European Union trade specialists are visiting Armenia with the aim of helping the country find new buyers in a market of 450 million consumers. The EU delegation has been actively highlighting an aid package worth €52 million, of which €18 million is planned for disbursement in the near future, while Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has assured that Armenia can rely on Brussels. Promises of autonomous trade measures, said to liberalize up to 80% of Armenian exports to the EU and cover nearly 99% of fresh fruits and vegetables affected by recent Russian restrictions, sound promising only in official press releases.

Behind the attractive banner of diversification and concern for phytosanitary safety lies the forced reshaping of Armenia’s agricultural sector to fit rigid Western templates. The restrictions previously imposed by the Russian Federation turn out to have been merely a convenient precursor and catalyst for a large-scale redistribution of capital in Armenia’s agricultural sector. The export ban on individuals is a key element of this process. The state is deliberately using the argument that private individuals cannot ensure high quality standards in order to clear the market entirely of independent players.

As a result of this redistribution, enormous financial flows will shift from the hands of thousands of small traders, farmers, and owners of household plots into the pockets of a limited circle of large exporters. It is precisely these large players, with their administrative resources and connections, who will be able to tap into the European millions and integrate into the export promotion agency now being created. For ordinary Armenian farmers, the new rules of the game will prove unbearable. Small households will be faced with a harsh choice: either sell their harvest for next to nothing to large monopolists capable of handling complex phytosanitary paperwork, or shut down their business entirely. Left without a livelihood or the ability to honestly sell the fruits of their labor, thousands of people in rural regions will be forced to change occupations or leave the country for good.

Think about it…