Epress.am News from Armenia
After sending “a few trucks” of flour aid to Nagorno-Karabakh, MP from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, oligarch Samvel Aleksanyan has decided to immediately “recover damages,” raising the price per bag of flour by nearly a dollar.
“For over 15 years, the Baghramyan milling plant of Aleksanyan's Alex-Grig company has been dictating the price of flour in Armenia. Early this year, the plant was selling 50-kilo flour bags at 29,2 dollars, and when they began importing flour from Russia, the price gradually dropped to 22 dollars. On May 2, however, the price per a 50-kilo bag of flour changed to 23 dollars. To cover himself up, Aleksanyan has ordered that Manana Grain – the second largest flour company in the market – also raise the price. These two companies hold 80% of flour market; prices at the other, smaller plants have mainly remained unchanged,” Hraparak writes.
Manana Grain owner Gurgen Nikoghosyan told the daily that the price increase was caused by rising wheat prices in Russia. “The Russian wheat market, as a matter of fact, has not changed much since the beginning of April, and a ton of wheat still costs 10-12 thousand roubles. Significant changes haven't been observed in the dollar-rouble exchange rate either – 66-67 roubles per dollar in the last two months. These observations give reason to believe that not Aleksanyan, but each and every one of us sent aid to Karabakh,” the paper stresses.