Armenia has not received official comments from Russia on cognac issue - minister

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YEREVAN, 2 September. /ARKA/. Armenia has not received official comments from Russia on the import of Armenian cognac, Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan said on Monday at a session of the parliamentary committee on regional and Eurasian integration issues./pp

In late August, the official Russian news agency TASS reported that the Russian consumer rights protection group Antikontrafakt (Anti-Counterfeit) )collected 200 samples of cognac (brandy) produced by Armenia's leading liquor companies and sent them to a Russian state laboratory for examination./pp

According to the group, laboratory tests showed that 90 per cent of them did not meet Russian safety and quality standards. In addition, almost half of the samples were found to contain ‘non-grape alcohols,’ making them ‘counterfeit alcoholic products,’ according to Anti-Counterfeit./pp

Referring to this data, the group appealed to the relevant Russian authorities to introduce ‘additional control over alcoholic products imported from the Republic of Armenia’ and ‘limit the circulation of products that do not meet quality standards.’/pp

So far, apart from statements in the media, we have not received any official comments from the Russian authorities. It is important for us that the brand ‘Armenian Cognac’ is valuable, and we ourselves take care that its quality remains at a high level’. In addition, the import of alcohol is controlled by the Russian Rosselkhoznadzor agricultural watchdog. We ourselves are interested in making sure that everything is properly organised,’ he said./pp

At the same time, the minister did not rule out that spirits from other countries may be packaged in Russia as Armenian brandy./pp

Papoyan said that in the near future a laboratory will be set up in Armenia to check the exported cognac. -0-/p