Having No Sea Doesn’t Stop Armenia From Being Largest Fish Producer in Region

Armenia has the most developed market for producing and exporting fish in the region, said Irakli Pataraia, executive director of the largest fish market in Georgia, Aquafeed Georgia, reports Business Georgia.

“This sector is more developed in Armenia than in Georgia or Azerbaijan. Armenia consumes 10 times more fish than Georgia, which means that its potential for production is 10 times greater,” he said. Pataraia noted that this sector will not be able to develop in Azerbaijan because of the poor quality of the water.

The Aquafeed Georgia Executive Director noted that there are 200 companies working in the fish production market in Armenia and the annual turnover in production is 5,000 tons. For Armenia, the Russian market is the largest — the volume of export of raw and frozen fish to Russia doubled in 2010.

Pataraia also mentioned international statistics according to which the amount of fish in the world’s oceans and seas has declined by 25%. This is due to unregulated, uncontrolled fish production, he said.