Imported Food into Armenia to be Labeled by Law

It's about time, really.

Foodstuffs imported into Armenia should be subjected to obligatory marking in Armenia, head of the Standardization and Compliance of the Trade and Economic Development Ministry Robert Dayan announced at a news conference on December 21.

He said subject to mandatory Armenian language marking are chicken meat, eggs, meat products, sausages, meat cans, dairy products, confectionaries, teas and coffees, chocolates, vegetables, jams and others. He said foodstuff with no Armenian language marking will not be allowed into the country.

The official noted that many foodstuffs imported from Turkey do not meet Armenian standards and, taking into consideration that the question cannot be settled because of absence of diplomatic relations with the country, Turkish foodstuffs imports were banned. All imported goods should be certified, but Turkish foodstuffs are not. “Turkish food sold in Armenian markets are smuggled,” Robert Dayan said.

One source did not mention the complete banning of Turkish food, so take that with a grain of Armenian salt. Even if food is labeled and such a label is not embraced by the market, it takes about three seconds to come up with the solution of importing the food with labels and later removing them for resale. Thus, square one.

Sources: ArmenPress and Regnum.