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There are 250 fish-breeding farms in Armenia, mainly producing trout and sturgeon.
Rather than submit to government demands to install water meters and to change the status of their land (from useless for agricultural purposes (as it is now) to arable), some Armenian fish breeders have put their farms up for sale.
Twenty five of 250 fish-breeding farms in Armenia, which mainly produce trout and sturgeon are on the market. Eight of them, according to Arthur Atoyan, director of the Union of Fish-Breeders, are facing fines, in violation of several laws on environment, as well as on taxes for usage of natural resources and water. The fines range from about $930 to $33,000.
The installment of one water meter, according to different specialists, costs €1,000-€5,000, and as for the change of a land status, it will mean additional taxes for the land, which range from 342,000 to19,500,000 drams ($934-$53,300) per one hectare in different regions of Armenia. These amounts are set by local administrative bodies, and the highest tariff is in Guy village, Armavir province.
In the past, fish-breeders had the permission of the Ministry of Nature Protection to dig a pond and use the water which comes out of the bore-hole, paying only one dram (3.62 cents) per one cubic meter. These kinds of lands did not have an agricultural significance, they were lands with a different status, prescribed by a law, and they were not used for agriculture.
“The Prime Minister announced last week at the government session that they were planning to develop fish production and promote fish export, but if our problems are not settled, we will not only be unable to export, but will also lose about 85 percent of our fish-breeding farms, which, by the way, survive at the expense of loans,” Atoyan says.
The situation concerning the fish farms arose last year, when the government started paying attention to complaints of the villages (Griboyedov, Apaga, Guy) located near fish-breeding farms, saying that there is no irrigation and drinking water in their villages, because fish-breeders use their water through artesian wells.
“Only fish-breeding farms consume 800 million cubic meters of water annually, whereas only 170 million cubic meters of irrigation water is left running from Lake Sevan annually,” Armen Gevorgyan, Minister of Territorial Administration of Armenia stated last year.
And as far as water is considered to be a national treasure, and there is a concern that artesian waters may simply be used up within three years, fish-breeding farms started receiving oral warnings, asking them to work clean (by changing land status and pay taxes) and those warnings have been implemented since late last year by means of fines.
“We do not mind working legally, but favorable conditions must be created for it first. Such high taxes and water meters will harm fish production,” Atoyan says.
This issue has been constantly voiced by National Assembly factions, too. Heritage faction MP Stepan Safaryan said that the misuse of the land is wrong, but it is also necessary to respect fish-breeders’ interests.
“The government must be very careful in case of any interference,” Safaryan said.
Arkadi Gevorgyan, Chairman of Association for Fish Breeders in Armenia (dealing with protection of fish-breeders’ rights), believes that the problem will be alleviated if fish-breeders are not demanded to install water meters. I would suggest having corresponding specialists who would measure the volume of running water for a concrete period of time and multiply it by, for example, a quarter. However, there has been no response to this suggestion yet.
According to the data of the National Statistical Service, reported last year, fish production was one of the most profitable businesses in Armenia (with 33 percent profit). About 24 fish-breeding farms export their product to Russia and Georgia, and hope to begin export to Europe.
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