On February 21-23, three-day “Test the Value Chain" workshop dedicated to discussion of the quality aspects of the food testing value chain was held in Yerevan. The event was initiated and organised by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (GIZ) and National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB).

The half-day workshops focused on discussion of quality aspects of the value chains of wine, fish, dried fruits and natural juices production.

The workshop was attended by representatives of different state institutions, quality infrastructure system organizations, other interested institutions, representatives of wine, dried fruits, natural juices and fish industry, as well as international organizations and private sector representatives.

Emil Tarasyan, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments of RA, attended the opening ceremony of the workshop and addressed a welcome speech.

The Deputy Minister stressed the importance of holding such events presenting trade and quality of infrastructure policy in Armenia and wished the participants of the workshop fruitful work.

Wilhelm Hugo,team leader of GIZ“Private Sector Development South Caucasus" programme – country component Armenia, spoke about the main objectives of the programme, presenting theprogramme activities implemented over the past three years in Armenia. He also stressed that the programme will enter a new three-year phase from April.

Moritz Ackermann, PTB Project Coordinator, introduced the activities of the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB), as well as project objectives and specific activities carried out in the South Caucasus.

The three day workshops hosted a number of international experts

International expert and enologist Josef Watzl presented his extensive experience in enology and winemaking, organization of wine production in Western countries, approaches to the wine industry in Armenia, detected problems as well as visions about calibration of winery laboratories, profiling and allocation of services.

PTB expert Dr. Christine Froese, in her turn, spoke about European experience in the fields of fish, dried fruits and natural juices production.

The representatives of the Department of Standardization, Metrology and Technical Regulation of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of RA presented "The Quality Infrastructure in Armenia" presentation on current situation in standardization, metrology, accreditation and technical regulation fields in Armenia, planned legislative amendments, as well as the already implemented and planned activities aimed at international cooperation.

In their turn, representatives of testing laboratories, particularly "Standard Dialogue" and "Tonus-Les" presented their activities and experience in the relevant fields.

The discussions also highlighted topics related to the policies and strategies applied in the sectors of wine, juices, dried fruits and fish production in Armenia, as well as EU-Armenia trade relations, internationally accredited production methods, export opportunities etc.

About GIZ: As a federally owned enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, peace and security. It also works in the private sector, fostering successful interaction between development policy and foreign trade.

About PTB: The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is the national metrology institute of the Federal Republic of Germany, with scientific and technical service tasks. It is a higher federal authority and a public-law institution directly under federal government control, without legal capacity, under the auspices of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.