Consumer rights need protecting in Armenia, say local organizations.

Chairwoman of the National Association of Consumers Melita Hakobyan says there is hardly a sphere in Armenia where consumer rights are upheld.

She reminds the main principles of organizations that defend the rights of consumers in the world – safety, getting information, being heard, selection, satisfaction of main needs, compensation of damage, consumer education and healthy environment. None of them, says Hakobyan, is observed in Armenia.

“While in the 1990s our newly established organization had a hope that its motto would be ‘Consumer is King’, then today we see that the consumer is the vassal of the market,” says Hakobyan.

Regarding the law “On Food Safety”, in the development of which her organization also took part, Hakobyan says: “Do you see that safety today? There is no such thing, because they do the wrong translation for imported goods and place that translation over the Best Before or Use By dates so that people do not know by which date to use this product. This is a total violation of the consumer rights.”

Chairman of the Union of Domestic Producers of Armenia Vazgen Safaryan shares these concerns. He says that the violation of consumers’ rights starts with under-weighing goods and ends with wrong and misleading labeling.

Safaryan says that Armenian consumers in 2001-2009 spent a total of $36 billion, with half of the expenditure on imported goods.

Goods worth $1.057 billion were exported from Armenia in 2008, while goods worth of $4.4 billion were imported. The same indexes in 2009 made $697.8 million and $3.3 billion, respectively.

“The negative balance is 4.7 times in favor of imports. As consumers spending so much on buying imported goods we should be entitled to demand that these means promote the development of the local economy. A local consumer may be the most sincere investor in the development of the country’s economy,” he says.

In January this year the Armenian government adopted a concept of restoring industry. Safaryan thinks that perhaps this will become the ground for the legislature to adopt a relevant law on industry later.

“We also find that we should have a body to regulate and oversee processes in the industrial sector,” Safaryan says.