Eight million roses were supposed to grow in greenhouses just outside Armenia’s capital Yerevan, in order to be sold and shipped to Russia.
But just two months after the first stems were cut, business owner Armand Pinarbasi and his resellers found their biggest export market suddenly closed.
Russia, which imported around 90 per cent of Armenia’s crop of some 100mn roses last year, last month announced a ban on fresh flowers from the South Caucasus country, citing phytosanitary concerns.
The move is the latest in a long list of temporary import bans Moscow has introduced on Armenian products, in an apparent bid to stress to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s pro-western government and voters the importance of close ties with Russia ahead of parliamentary elections on Sunday.
“We just started to get our first roses two months ago, and we were not expecting to have any limitations on exports to anywhere in the world, including Russia of course,” said Pinarbasi, a French-Armenian entrepreneur who recently left an international career in consulting to start his new business in Armenia.
At a flower market in Yerevan that currently operates at night due to the daytime heat, one seller was standing before loads of brightly coloured bouquets. Arud, who sold mainly daisies, said producers he works with mainly sold their flowers to Russia.
“Now for the first time they send via Georgia and Turkey to sell in Bulgaria and Romania,” he added.
The suspension of flower imports was swiftly followed by other bans, all citing health and safety grounds.
On May 22 Russia’s consumer watchdog said it found overly high levels of minerals in Armenia’s Jermuk mineral water. The next day, it suspended sales of Armenian wine and brandy from three major companies.
The next week, it took issue with Armenian tomatoes, peppers and strawberries, prompting Pashinyan to film a video of himself in response, enjoying an enormous bowl of strawberries on his campaign bus.
This week, just days ahead of the election, Moscow took issue with Armenian cherries, apricots and peaches, and suspended imports of fresh fish. On Wednesday, it widened its ban to potatoes, apples and dried fruit.
“It’s increasing day by day,” said Areg Kochinyan, head of the Armenian Council think-tank in Yerevan.
The trade bans have a significant impact on the small, landlocked country of 3mn. Russia is the biggest buyer of Armenian goods, especially agrifood products: 93 per cent of fruit exports, 98 per cent of vegetables, and 97 per cent of fish exports went to Russia last year.
“Everything that they’re doing, everything that they’re saying has just one aim: to scare the Armenian voter,” Kochinyan said.
Pashinyan is hoping his Civil Contract party will secure a strong majority on June 7, allowing him to stay in office with a mandate for moving Armenia away from dependence on Russia, both in economic and security terms.
This has led to increasingly close ties with both Brussels and Washington, marked by visits in recent weeks by US vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, as well as a large summit of EU leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But the import suspensions — a radical move given Armenia’s membership of a customs union with Russia — are also backfiring, Kochinyan said. Some business owners, farmers and traders have been angered by the bluntness of the instrument Russia is wielding.
“They found illnesses in Armenian fruits that haven’t even started growing yet. They already banned Armenian grapes, while grapes will only be ready in two months . . . It’s only apricot season from July to September but they have already found some illnesses in apricots too.”
Marta Kos, the EU’s commissioner for enlargement, on Tuesday said she called the Armenian foreign minister to discuss increased EU support “in the face of growing economic coercion by Russia”.
Russian inspectors visited Pinarbasi’s greenhouses recently and found no health and safety issues, he said, so he was hopeful that exports to Russia could restart soon. But, he added, the experience was “a good opportunity to investigate other markets, in addition to the Russian market”.
Pashinyan is progressing towards a peace deal with neighbouring Azerbaijan, which could lead to an opening of borders and more economic opportunities and trade.
“We are in a catastrophic situation, actually, because our eastern border is shut with Azerbaijan, our western border is shut with Turkey, our southern border is shut because of the Iran war,” Kochinyan said.
“So it creates a very, very dangerous situation for us, complete isolation. That’s the main reason we need an open Turkish border . . . You will be able to produce something in Yerevan and with railroad send it to Europe.”
At the night market in Yerevan, flower sellers said an open border with Turkey would be a relief.
“We are like in a pit here, with just one road out. If it closes, we are stuck,” Arud, the daisy seller, said.
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