1.

Main poultry factories:

Yerevan poultry factory1: Yerevan Poultry Factory OJSC is one of the

leaders in producing and selling eggs in Armenia. Being established in
1951, it is the biggest both in Armenia and Transcaucasia region overall.
In 1999 the factory was privatized and became the part of X-Group
Union of Legal Entities. Since then the revival of the factory started:
production facilities and conveyors were reequipped, resulted in upgrade
and progressing in production processes. Technological capacity was
constantly strengthened, own purification; compressor facilities, bio-
waste recovery plant and laboratory were built. All these assisted in the
creation of up-to-date effective production processes and the company
became a leader in producing and selling of eggs in domestic market. An
extensive experience was gained with years in growing layers and
production of high quality nutritious eggs.
At this point the Factory is equipped with its own food production; The
Factory also collaborates with internationally recognized fodder
producing companies. The Factory continues to expand the range of
products, due to increasing demand. The consumption network of
Yerevan Poultry Factory includes not only Armenia, but also Georgian
market.
The main goal of the Factory is to improve continuously the quality and
cost-effectiveness in poultry production by providing the best poultry at
the best overall value to our customers through the quality of our people,
processes, and technological innovations.
Arax poultry2: Arax Poultry was the largest Poultry farm in Soviet
Armenia created in 1997 on the basis of Djrarat farm. When the Soviet
Union collapsed, Djrarat Poultry Farm restarted its operations in 2001,
and was included in X-Group. A great commitment and professional
management was required to restore the production volume, as well as
research has been conducted to develop new flock of Cobb-cultivation in

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http://www.xgroup.am/content/32
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http://www.xgroup.am/content/30
 new Armenia. Due to huge investments, a total of 1,600 tons of chicken
meat and meat products were sold in 2002. Today the production
capacity of the poultry farm enables to implement the whole process;
from incubation of layers one-day chickens to slaughtering and selling
the broiler chickens, and of course; egg production. Nowadays, the
poultry farm manufactures and sells about 35-40% of the poultry industry
in Armenia. It became possible to achieve these results in such a short
period of time due to effective and professional work in production,
human resources management, marketing, as well as healthy fodder,
sophisticated equipments. In 2003 Arax won Grand Prix and honorary
title of Chicken King while representing broiler chickens and semi-
finished products at the Second International Aviculture and poultry
processing Expo in Moscow. Arax Poultry farm in addition to chicken
meat also produces chicken eggs and is a IEC /International Egg
Commission/ member. Arax Poultry farm cooperates with many local
and international organizations when buying food raw materials, food
additives and other equipment. Arax Poultry farm consumes its products
throughout the whole territory of Armenia; in addition, a research in
Georgia was conducted to export Arax products to the neighboring
country as well. Arax Poultry farm motto is Healthy food healthy
future.
Other poultry factories include:
Ashtarak dzu
Aragats poultry farm
Syuniki trchnafabrika
Agrotechinvest
Andre-renter
Argo poultry factory
Arzni poultry and pig breeding farm
Black star
Dvin poultry factory
Eco farms
Hamov Lori dzu
Lusakert Haroutiun poultry factory
Masis poultry factory
 2. Production, exports and imports:3

Production: In 2011, around 5.6 thousand tons of poultry was produced in

Armenia, while its production was considerably high in 1990 around 34
thousand tones which met the domestic demand almost entirely. Breakdown
of Soviet Union affected stock breeding sector adversely in particular, poultry
sector was hit directly: entities involved in poultry and egg
production experienced deep decline. The outcome was that the volumes of egg
production and quantities of chicken livestock declined about 3 times during only 4
years, while output of poultry meat declined by more than 10 times. Small
individual farmers were left as the only producers: thus, imports of chicken and
eggs became necessity. Currently, poultry companies have become quite active in
Armenia: they produce respectively 80% and 40% of domestic demand for poultry
meat and eggs. Nevertheless, production of poultry meat is still 6 times lower than
in Soviet period and is still not sufficient to meet the domestic consumption
demand.

In this table 1 1990 is considered as a base year (100%). All other percentages of
the years are compared to 1990. For example in 1995 the production of poultry was
the 20.2% of 1990.

year Percent compared to 1990 (in%)

1990 100
1995 20.2
2000 3.6
2005 13.7
2008 19.9
2009 14.9
2010 16.1

Exports and imports: When analyzing production and import volumes of poultry
for Armenia, one can see that both had stable growing trends during the last years.
Nonetheless, domestic production continues to be several times lower than
imports, thus, covering only 13% of the domestic market (see Table 2). 50% of
global poultry production is concentrated in the US, China and Brazil. These

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countries are also the main poultry suppliers in the global market ensuring about
75% of global exports. Armenia imports poultry mostly from the US and Brazil
(80-90% of Armenian imports). Starting 2009, imports from Canada decreased
which previously used to be considerable. Instead, imports from China and the
Ukraine increased (see Table 3):

Table 2: Stocks of chicken production and imports in Armenia, 2009-2011

2009 2010 2011
tons % tons % tons %
Total 32,488 100 41,049 100 44,322 100
Production 4,911 15 5,015 12 5,638 13
Imports 27,577 85 36,034 88 38,684 87

Table 3: Countries that export poultry to Armenia, 2006-2010 (tons)

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

USA 3,551 15,482 26,083 19,210 25,743
Brazil 2,631 6,966 5,843 6,540 7,074
China - 424 605 415 944
Ukraine - - 60 314 768
Bulgaria 21 20 - - 764
Canada 949 2,926 3,760 1,113 249
France 305 291 71 358 240
Germany - 216 135 - 149

3. Main problems of poultry in Armenia4:

The chairman of Armenias Union of Poultry Farmers Sergey Stepanyan has called
on the countrys government to impose import restrictions on cheap chicken meat,
which he claimed pushes down domestic prices and hurts local businesses.

According to Stepanyan, most Armenian poultry arms are operating at a loss and
recent government program to develop the sector cannot be effective.

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on-cheap-chicken
Stepanyan also stressed that poultry farmers were not asking to ban poultry imports
completely, but wanted the authorities to limit imports of cheap, lowquality
chicken parts, which created a non-competitive environment for domestic poultry
farmers and harmed the health of citizens.

In June, poultry farm Art Farmer ceased operations. Company director Samvel
Abrahamyan pointed out that the poultry industry was suffering from a lack of
profitability.

According to official information, the annual demand for poultry meat in Armenia
is currently estimated at 30,000 tonnes (t). Local manufacturers provide up to 30%
of the domestic demand, with the overall volume 10,000t. As of 2015, the largest
importers of chicken are the USA, Brazil, Canada and Ukraine. In 2014, Armenias
government, together with the Union of Poultry Farmers, developed a program to
increase poultry production capacity in order to gradually replace imports.

4. Future trends5:

Armenia intends to increase domestic poultry production from the current 10,000
tons per year to 25,000 tons per year by 2020.
The increase in production is related to the introduction of a state program on the
development of poultry farming which has been created jointly by the country's
government and Union of Poultry Farmers.
By 2020, the level of self-sufficiency of poultry production in the country should
increase from 30% to 50%. In 2014, Armenia imported 7,100 tons of poultry from
Brazil, Canada and Ukraine.
"In the next five years, due to major investments we will be able to increase
production by an additional 15,000 tones according to our estimates. This will
meet about half of the domestic demand for poultry meat," said chairman of the
Union of Poultry Breeders of Armenia, Sergey Stepanyan.
"There are also some prospects we may see due to the country's accession to the
Customs Union. We buy most of the feed grain from Russia and Kazakhstan, and

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1711839W/
if we are in the common customs area, then I think we will see major changes," he
added.
In additional in 2014, Armenia produced 322 million pieces of eggs, which
completely met the domestic demand. Within the coming five years this figure
should be increased by 10-15%.