President Serzh Sargsyan’s working visit to Kotayk marz

President Serzh Sargsyan today made a working visit to the Kotayk marz. The Armenian President visited MAVAS GROUP’s greenhouse farm located in the community of Dzoraghbyur, whose groundbreaking ceremony he had attended at the end of 2013. Serzh Sargsyan familiarized with the investments projects implemented by the company, the working conditions and the production capacity.

During the tour, the President was informed that MAVAS GROUP LLC, which was founded in 2005 and has been engaged in greenhouse farming in RA Kotayk marz’s community of Dzoraghbyur since 2011, has built and has put into operation 5 greenhouses on a total of 11 hectare area from 2011 to 2014. The greenhouses mainly produce cucumber and tomato. The total investments of the project amounted to about 8.2 billion drams.

In order to increase production, in 2014 the company undertook a construction of one more 10 hectare greenhouse. At present, land works are being carried out and greenhouse construction parts being worth around 2.8 billion drams have been imported. The total value of the project comprises about 7.0 billion drams. The greenhouse is expected to be put into operation in September-October 2015.

The company’s greenhouses are saturated with modern European equipment imported mainly from Netherlands. All the production phases – heating, growing of plants, fertilization, CO2 enrichment, prevention of possible diseases – are managed through automated systems which are controlled by qualified international specialists.

According to the company’s executives, until now their products were sold mainly in the domestic market, but since March of 2015, they plan to lay emphasis on export as well: negotiations are being conducted with large buyers in EEU member countries, a few contracts with average annual demand of five thousand tones have already been concluded.

The company employs 80-130 people (depended on the seasonal nature of business) whose average monthly salary comprises about 100 thousand drams. In case of implementing the afore-mentioned projects, the company would have at least 400 employees.

During this time, the government officials in charge of agriculture reported to the President on the overall status of greenhouse farming in the Republic of Armenia and its pace of development.