RA Ministry of Agriculture examines opportunities for American GMO giant Monsanto in Armenian market

ArmInfo. The Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia is interested and is aimed at cultivating organic, greenery products in the republic. Ani Smbatyan, press secretary of the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture, stated this in a conversation with the correspondent of ArmInfo, in response to a resonant message from the US embassy that representatives of the American GMO giant, Monsanto, are in Armenia.

Ani Smbatyan stressed that Monsanto does not have agreements with the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture for cooperation, and it is unlikely that in this case it could deploy activities in the Armenian market.  However, to completely exclude such an opportunity Smbatyan, however, did not agree. According to her, it is possible that Monsanto was registered in the republic under some other trademark. "In any case, after the media publications, Minister of Agriculture Ignaty Arakelyan instructed to thoroughly study the activities of this company and the possibilities of its penetration into the Armenian market, I will be informed about the results later. I want to assure, however, that at the presentation of Valmont and Monsanto Armenia, organized by the US Embassy, was also attended by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Armen Harutyunyan, who also stressed Armenia's interest in growing "green", organic agricultural products," Smbatyan said.

Today the world-famous rock musician of Armenian origin, the singer of the System of a Down group Serge Tankian addressed this topic on his Facebook page. He urged Armenia to "stay away" from the American company Monsanto, which produces transgenic seeds and poisons for their processing.

On his Facebook page, Tankian, in particular, writes that Monsanto has poisoned the environment in the US, and its genetically modified foods can put an end to organic food. "Because of its policy, Monsanto earned a reputation in the United States and Europe as a" corporation evil. "Unlike in the United States, in Armenia, I have the opportunity to enjoy the taste of ecologically clean, crispy apples - a product of long- term agricultural work." Even with Monsanto, I can not find such apples in the United States, "writes Tankian.

On November 1, the efforts of the US Embassy in Armenia in Yerevan hosted a presentation of the activities of the companies Valmont Irrigation and Monsanto. Both companies are well known in the world market: is engaged in the sale and maintenance of mechanized irrigation equipment, and there are no complaints about it. The same cannot be said about the transnational corporation Monsanto - this company is engaged in the production of transgenic seeds and poisons for their processing. And then the temporary charge d'affaires of the US Embassy in Armenia, Rafik Mansour, marked their entry into the Armenian market, two years ago Armenia banned the production of GMOs, but the import of food containing genetically modified components is allowed in the presence of special markings. That is, the market as such is not protected from such products, even if it appears on the shelves with special markings.  However, in an interview with journalists, Monsanto's sales manager in the CIS Alexander Zvyagintsev assured that the company will not offer Armenian partners to work with genetically modified products, as they "do not do it in countries where it is prohibited." But for about 20 years now, the company has been selling seeds in Armenia and advising farmers.

Between those, at the end of September, The Guardian published an unmasking article that Monsanto had officially spent lobbying for its interests in the European Parliament about? 300 000-? 400? 000 per year.  An internal correspondence was also made public, where the company's employees discuss ways to better prevent the normal study of the glyphosate pesticide and its recognition as dangerous, and correspond with some American officials and scientists about it. Later it was also discovered that the European organization EFSA, responsible for product safety, copied its 2015 report on glyphosate from the Monsanto 2012 authorship report.