Tariff-free access covering roughly four-fifths of Armenian goods bound for the European Union has been put in place for a two-year period. The arrangement entered into force on 10 October, with eight farm commodities remaining subject to annual caps on the volume of goods eligible for those concessions.
The policy arrives at a time when Armenian exporters are navigating an uncertain trading environment in Russia, a market that has long held a prominent place in the country's export landscape. Trade curbs covering a variety of Armenian products took effect under Russian authority from May onward, with an additional round of prohibitions added the following month on grounds of alleged sanitary and regulatory non-compliance. Voices across Armenia have characterised the restrictions as driven by political rather than legal considerations.
Exporters welcomed the EU tariff concessions, yet those same traders acknowledged that lower duties alone would not be enough to carve out a reliable position for Armenian products in a marketplace where established players already hold firm ground.
Facing trade barriers in the Russian market, Max Fish — one of Armenia's fish-producing companies — has been working to open up alternative export destinations. According to Armen Karapetyan, who holds a director's position at the firm, Max Fish had been routing fish consignments through Turkey toward Romania, along with Ukraine and Moldova. No agreement on transit documentation materialised, leaving the consignments to be sent back, and no alternative delivery route was available to the firm at that point.
Gor Grigoryan, who heads Armenia's Fish Farmers Union, noted that local producers would be entering a marketplace already occupied by countries like Norway, whose fishing sector is both long-established and operating at scale. He conveyed, through indirect speech, that gaining a foothold would require time spent learning the market's dynamics, while also pointing to processed fish products as a potential avenue where Armenian producers might find more favourable conditions.
Gourmet Lab director Artyom Tadevosyan, whose company makes preserves and dried fruit, noted that buyers across Europe have yet to develop much familiarity with what Armenia has to offer. Across former Soviet markets, Armenian dried fruits and preserves carry an established name, whereas that same level of familiarity has yet to take hold among European buyers.
Tadevosyan argued that Armenian exporters should concentrate on goods with little or no presence in EU markets, pointing out that vegetables widely grown across member states — tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers among them — leave little room for Armenian producers to gain a foothold. He noted that preserves, confectionery, and other products tied to Armenian tradition held stronger commercial promise, though carving out a lasting foothold in any market would require the work of many years.
Written remarks from EU Ambassador to Armenia Vassilis Maragos outlined the intent behind the trade preferences: opening doors to new export markets for Armenian agricultural producers and companies while broadening the overall base of the country's economy. Maragos described the two-year window as an opportunity Armenian businesses should draw on fully, while adding that a tariff suspension on its own would not be enough — meeting EU standards, maintaining reliable supply volumes, and cultivating lasting relationships with European partners were all put forward as conditions central to any worthwhile result, alongside an institutional environment that supports business activity. He further observed that some Armenian companies may find a foothold through distinctive products, while others may determine that joining forces is the more workable path to reaching the volumes European buyers require.
Part of that EU effort involves building up Armenia's testing infrastructure — funding the creation and accreditation of laboratories whose product safety assessments would gain recognition under European standards.
Addressing exporters' requirements, Pierre Bontono of the International Trade Centre outlined four priorities: product safety, reliable quality, pricing that holds up against competitors, and packaging suited to market demands. He described favourable circumstances, on their own, as no guarantee of outcomes, and noted that distinguishing their offerings from rival goods — and conveying what set those products apart — formed an equally pressing task for Armenian producers. Beyond wine, Armenia's food and agricultural exports remain largely unfamiliar to international markets — a gap that Bontono described not merely as a drawback, but as an opening to introduce both the country and its produce to the wider world.
Trade adviser Ljiljana Rsumovic of Sweden's National Board of Trade noted that packaging and labelling requirements hold consequences well beyond how a product looks on a shelf — for exporters aiming at the EU market, those rules function as a compliance obligation, not a branding consideration.
Under the European Commission's TRACES system, certain animal-derived goods — fish and honey among them — are subject to registration and compliance verification, according to Arthur Mamikonyan of Armenia's Food Safety Inspection Body. Six producers from Armenia — four working in fish and two in honey — hold active registrations within the platform. Depending on the transaction, purchasers may need to meet additional certification requirements. The GlobalG certification mark was referenced in the source material, and produce vendors supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to large retail chains may find that A.P. certification becomes a condition of doing business.
Reduced trade barriers into the EU market had previously been extended to Armenia. Through 2022, the country held access to the EU's GSP+ framework, a trade arrangement that lowered or removed tariff barriers on a range of goods. Armenian export volumes to European markets fell short of what had been anticipated, according to a statement from Deputy Economy Minister Tigran Gasparyan. Volume thresholds and payment conditions that bulk purchasers commonly impose leave a share of the country's agricultural producers struggling to comply.
Among the government's stated priorities, Gasparyan outlined efforts to establish how export-focused production might be consolidated and how Armenian businesses could build working relationships with large suppliers entering the domestic market. Deputy Foreign Minister Kostanyan outlined the view that smaller Armenian producers would need to either combine their operational capacity or channel exports through larger companies, noting that the European Union market demands consistent volume, defined quality standards, and reliable delivery schedules that a single truckload arrangement would fall short of meeting.
Karen Azaryan, whose work centres on international trade, pointed to hands-on government support — walking businesses through export paperwork and helping them tap into newly opened trade preferences — as the kind of assistance that smaller enterprises were looking for. Azaryan pointed to the absence of any dedicated trade-promotion body — an institution capable of guiding businesses through export procedures step by step. Working in the field himself, he told reporters that no publicly accessible resource laying out the process step by step — one businesses could follow to take advantage of the opening — had come to his attention.
Meeting EU standards and securing extra certifications ranked well below the hurdles exporters found most pressing, according to those accounts. Finding buyers turned out to be where the effort stalled.
Tadevosyan called on the government to extend the broadest feasible backing to producers and processors, enabling them to lock in reliable sales channels and meet their loan and leasing commitments. He put the timeline for reaching meaningful export volumes across European markets at roughly four to five years. Under the current arrangement, the tariff preferences granted by the EU are set to run for no more than two years.
One exporter told reporters that operating under those market conditions had grown unworkable, and the company's greenhouse properties were subsequently put on the market.
