Epress.am News from Armenia
Grape growers of the village of Kaghtsrashen in Armenia's Ararat province were once again promised by the local Vinar winery that the entire debt for the grapes that were purchased from them last autumn would be covered until May 10.
Farmer Zakar Petrosyan told Epress.am that after an April 21 meeting of the villagers with Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, the winery paid them 50 million drams of the total sum of 160 million. “They promised to pay another 50 million until May 4, and the remaining 60 million – until May 10,” Petrosyan said, adding that vines this year are unlikely to produce much fruit, and farmers haven't decided yet whom to sell their grapes to.
Note, after an unusually rich harvest in the fall of 2015, the farmers of Kaghtsrashen had to sell the grapes to the local Vinar winery for as little as 40 drams per kilogram. The company, however, failed to pay the grape growers money in time, causing them to hold a number of protests in front of the Armenian government building and the presidential residence in Yerevan.