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FORMER HEAD OF BRANDY FACTORY ACCUSES ARMENIAN OLIGARCH OF UNFAIR COMPETITION - WIKILEAKS
news.am
Aug 25, 2011
Armenia
Other local Armenian producers are producing look-alikes to Yerevan
Brandy Company's (YBC) premium brands using imported wine spirits,
substandard spirits or even grain spirits as a foundation, reads the
WikiLeaks-publiched cable.
Former YBC President Herve Caroff said look-alike products are
threatening
YBC's market share, complaining about the Noy Wine and Brandy factory
owned by influential businessman-turned-politician Gagik Tsarukyan
"The Noy factory has the right to use the Ararat seal for its products,
but was expected to use that seal for wines, not brandy.
That firm recently has begun producing look-alike brandy of
questionable provenance. Caroff told us he had spoken with the Ministry
of Agriculture about setting up a commission to monitor brandy quality
in Armenia, but was discouraged about the commission's prospects when
he was told that brandy production had become a lucrative business
for influential people," the document reads.
Caroff claims that official grape harvest statistics are exaggerated
to conceal the illegal production of faux-brandy by YBC's competitors.
In 2005, the grape harvest in Armenia was
officially 130,000 tons, but Caroff claims that actual production
was no more than 60,000. According to Caroff, companies which have
been in existence for five or six years are selling "twenty-year old"
brandy, a clear sign of fraud.
news.am
Aug 25, 2011
Armenia
Other local Armenian producers are producing look-alikes to Yerevan
Brandy Company's (YBC) premium brands using imported wine spirits,
substandard spirits or even grain spirits as a foundation, reads the
WikiLeaks-publiched cable.
Former YBC President Herve Caroff said look-alike products are
threatening
YBC's market share, complaining about the Noy Wine and Brandy factory
owned by influential businessman-turned-politician Gagik Tsarukyan
"The Noy factory has the right to use the Ararat seal for its products,
but was expected to use that seal for wines, not brandy.
That firm recently has begun producing look-alike brandy of
questionable provenance. Caroff told us he had spoken with the Ministry
of Agriculture about setting up a commission to monitor brandy quality
in Armenia, but was discouraged about the commission's prospects when
he was told that brandy production had become a lucrative business
for influential people," the document reads.
Caroff claims that official grape harvest statistics are exaggerated
to conceal the illegal production of faux-brandy by YBC's competitors.
In 2005, the grape harvest in Armenia was
officially 130,000 tons, but Caroff claims that actual production
was no more than 60,000. According to Caroff, companies which have
been in existence for five or six years are selling "twenty-year old"
brandy, a clear sign of fraud.