Sugar price surges in Armenia or Who will win – premier or oligarch?
According to the daily, Although sugar and initial product prices at the world market started going up several months ago, the sugar which is being sold now in Armenia has been produced by the sugar refinery owned by Samvel Alexanyan, sugar importer and owner of Yerevan-CITY chain of supermarkets, yet in the first half of this year, when world prices for sugar were extremely low.
The newspaper substantiates its statement by the customs committee’s figures – customs cost of the imported sugar was 36 cents per one kilogram this year, while in 2015 it stood at 42 cents. It means the imported sugar cost slid 14%.
Despite that, sugar was sold at 350 drams per kilogram in 2015 and at 405 drams in 2016.
In fact, prices leapt 15 percent. This means that the imported sugar became 14% cheaper, but its price in stores went 15 percent up.
Armenia’s sugar market is monopolized. Theoretically things are fully controlled by the anti-trust agency headed by Artak Shaboyan, however, it is still not known whether the agency will take notice of this outrage, or it will turn a blind eye to it. It is also not clear yet how strict the agency will be with oligarch Samvel Alexanyan.
Taking into account the fact that the antitrust agency has imposed an AMD 110-million fine on Yerevan Beer Company for importing raw materials at low prices but selling beer at high prices, the authors of the publication expect that fine in this sugar case will amount to billions of drams.
Thing is that there is a fierce competition in Armenia’s beer market not only among domestic producers, but also among importers, while the sugar market is completely monopolized.
Remarkable is that Karen Karapetyan, prime minister, gave the green light to Artak Shaboyan at the recent Cabinet session.
In particular, the premier said that the antitrust agency is completely independent and that the government has no pressing levers – it can only voice its opinion.
Karapetyan called on the agency and its head to concentrate efforts to monitor the market of prime necessity commodities.
He said that people are concerned about this far deeper than about beer prices and stressed that there are many producers and importers at the beer market.
Unlike beer, sugar is among prime necessity products, just about which the prime minister spoke.
Now we’ll see who is stronger and more powerful – Artak Shaboyan, the head of the antitrust committee, and Karen Karapetyan, who gave him the green light, or Samvel Alexanyan, the authors of the publication say. ($1 – AMD 479.21). ---0----