Armenian Consumers are Being Deceived: Vegetable-Based Spreads Sold as Butter, Says Butter Importer

One can still find Finnish import Valio butter sold by the kilo in Armenian supermarkets; however, imports of this butter were suspended in March of this year, said Grigor Mantashyan, deputy director of Marnik which imports Valio.

“Our company continues to import this type of butter, but only in packages — they are Valio and Finn,” Mantashyan told Epress.am today.

The Marnik deputy director said the reason the imports by kilo were suspended was because of the lack of raw materials in the Finnish market, which resulted in Finland prohibiting the export of butter, reserving it only for its domestic market.

“It’s surprising that till today in different point of sales you can buy Valio sold by the kilo at very low prices. This company’s name is noted and displayed, but the buyer often doesn’t know what she’s buying. By the way, even the sales prices are ridiculous — 1 kilogram for 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 drams, while the cost of pure butter begins from 3,500 drams,” he said.

Mantashyan mentioned that his company has repeatedly appealed to the proper bodies to do something about this.

“Inspection was carried out at some point, but the act has not yet been completely prevented. Entities importing butter instead of [real] butter are offering different vegetable spreads at incomparable low prices and declaring that it’s a sale. This is how vegetable spreads are sold — quite cheap for butter, but very expensive for a spread,” he said.