The National Institute of Standards (NIS) of Armenia has become a member of the Council of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for 2011-2012. This, according to NIS representatives, will make the normative base of standardization of Armenia corresponding to world standards, and will make the export of Armenian products to international market easier.

Also known as SARM in the international arena, NIS became a full member of ISO, the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards, in 1997. (ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 163 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system). Becoming an ISO Council member was not easy for Armenia; however, Armenia’s candidacy was defended by 50 member states of the Council. Currently SARM participates in ISO’s 35 technical commissions’ works; in 17 out of them it has an observer status.

SARM Deputy Head Artak Shahbazyan says that now the institute has an international laboratory, where Armenian brandy and wines produced in Armenia and exported to Europe are examined.

“We have a “V I 1”certificate for alcoholic beverages; it would be impossible to export brandy and wine to Europe without it,” Shahbazyan told ArmeniaNow.

According to Shahbazyan, during the years of being an ISO Council member, Armenia will manage to make its standardization normative bases corresponding to world standards, which will make it possible to export not only Armenian brandy and wine, but also other products from Armenia to the world market.

Armenia had serious problems with standardization in 2007, when the US Food and Drugs Administration issued a warning, saying that the amount of arsenic in Jermuk mineral water exported from Armenia to the United States was 50-60 higher than the norm. And the Armenian side insisted that the amount of arsenic in Jermuk corresponded to Armenia’s standards.

SARM says that after the standardization with the international norms, there will be no such problems.