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Turkey was an important economic partner for Russia and it exported large amounts of agricultural produce to Russia. The ban or restrictions on farm produce imports from Turkey will allow Armenia to increase  its exports to Russia. This issue should be considered not only in the context of restrictions, but also Armenia’s opportunities, economist Mesrob Arakelyan told Panorama.am.   

"Armenia’s capacities should be considered: the fact is the Russian market is so large that Armenian companies could sell their products even without the restrictions imposed. For example, agricultural produce sales in one of the big Russian supermarkets reach several billion dollars a year. Armenia can only export farm products of $100 million at most,” he said.

According to Arakelyan, when Russia refused to import farm products from the West, that decision was met with enthusiasm among Armenian producers, but the results did not prove very encouraging.

The economist said he was following Russian press reports concerning in particular the list of countries where Russia can find a replacement for most Turkish goods, and Armenia was not on that list.  

As regards the possibility that Russian tourists will start traveling to Armenia instead of Egypt and Turkey, the economist is not optimistic about that either.

“The fact that people travel to Turkey to spend their time on seaside should be taken into account. Armenia is no alternative to Turkey in this sense. Yet Armenia may rival Georgia as a recreation destination,” the interlocutor of Panorama.am said adding that nevertheless some of the Russian tourists will prefer vacationing in Armenia.

In his words, in the near future Russian-Turkish economic relations will be the worst in a decade.

“Flexibilit  is needed as the economy is developing dynamically and it is impossible to determine some long-term principles. We witnessed Russia-Turkey relations worsen literally within a day. Armenia should take an appropriate decision very quickly and attempt to gain economic benefits from this,” he noted. 

“Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and should be able to get as many benefits and opportunities from its membership as possible,” M. Arakelyan stressed.

As regards the opinion that Armenia may increase agricultural produce imports from Turley and export domestic products to Russia, the economist said that there are such concerns, while the solution of the issue depends on proper organization.

“I think under such conditions it would be expedient to limit imports of Turkish farm products to Armenia. This will help encourage domestic production – first of all, for domestic consumption and, secondly, for export,” Mesrob Arakelyan said.