Official opening of VIII UN Global Conference on Wine Tourism takes  place in Yerevan

ArmInfo. The official opening of the VIII UN Global Conference on Wine Tourism took place in Yerevan, bringing together 120 industry experts from more than 20  countries, including Portugal, Japan, Argentina, India, African  countries, etc.

During the opening ceremony, Minister of Economy Gevorg Papoyan noted  that it is a great honor for Armenia to be the host country of the UN  Global Conference on Enotourism (wine tourism). “This is a historic  chance for us and an opportunity to present the potential of tourism  and winemaking,” he emphasized.

Referring to the thousand-year history of winemaking in Armenia, the  minister noted that the wine industry for us is not just a branch of  the economy, but an entire art, a culture. In this vein, he noted  that enotourism (wine tourism) is today an exceptional opportunity to  introduce the history and culture of Armenia to the world, as well as  one of the ways to proportionately develop the country’s regions,  since wineries are concentrated not in the capital and economically  active regions, but, as a rule, in rural areas.

, Papoyan emphasized.

At the same time, he complained that the quality of wine produced in  Armenia and its recognition in the world do not correspond to each  other. Therefore, today the department is doing a lot of work in the  direction of increasing the recognition of the quality and taste  indicators of Armenian wine in the international market.

, he noted.

In turn, during the welcoming speech, the Director of External  Relations of the International Organization of Vine and Wine Sophie  Pallas noted that Armenia can rightfully be proud of the diversity of  grape varieties and wines, which is very important from the point of  view of the development of the sphere. She noted that Armenia has a  centuries-old history of winemaking, as a result of which today there  are about 1,700 vineyards in our country, which is 0.2% of the area  of vineyards in the world, in addition, about 500 varieties of grapes  are registered in Armenia, which have been preserved here.

Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization Zurab  Pololikashvili noted that he was glad to be in such a beautiful  country as Armenia. According to him, in order to see the beauty of  our country, several days are not enough, but most of the guests of  the Conference, as Pololikashvili noted, expressed their intention to  visit Armenia again.

, – he emphasized.

The UN Global Conference on Wine Tourism is being held in Armenia  from September 11 to 13. Within the framework of the Conference, both  official events and master classes, socio-cultural programs, visits  to wineries, including the oldest winery in the world – Areni-1 Cave,  are organized.

According to the Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia, in  the first half of 2024, Armenia significantly reduced wine production  – by 38.5% per annum, providing 4.4 million liters.

According to the RA Customs Service, for the whole of 2023, Armenia  reduced wine exports by 7% to 4.4 million liters, with a decrease in  customs value by 2.8% to $18.3 million. The main sales market for  Armenian wine is traditionally Russia, the share of which increased  from 78.8% in 2022 to 83.2% in 2023.  Then, by a wide margin, come  the United States with a share of 5%, France – 1.6%, Belarus – 1.3%,  Lithuania, Italy, Belgium (0.9% each), China (0.8%), Georgia, Italy,  Poland (0.4% each), the United Kingdom (0.2%). 

The remaining volume was supplied to Japanese, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Greek,  Canadian, Latvian, Israeli, Estonian, Danish, German, Australian,  UAE, Bulgarian, Dutch, Swiss, Ukrainian, Czech. Very small volumes  (less than 1,000 liters) were supplied to Finland, Sweden, Taiwan,  Norway, Iceland, Turkey, Austria, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Singapore,  Cuba, Uruguay, Malta and Benin.

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