Still in the mid-1990s, the Armenian press wrote that genetically modified potato seeds were imported to Armenia, however, as of now the Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia does not posses distinct information whether there is or there is not genetically modified food in the country.

Artashes Ziroyan, Head of the Bio-resources Management Agency of the Ministry of Nature Protection said at a press conference on Wednesday that they do not know what kind of and how much of genetically modified organisms (GMO) are imported to Armenia, how and where they are sold.

“We could not do anything because there was no law which would allow controlling all that. But now the draft law on ‘Usage of Genetically Modified Organisms’ has been drafted and submitted to the government, and we hope that it will be issued from 2012,” Ziroyan says.

He stated that the new law will give an opportunity to check the composition of food imported to Armenia within a year, and in case of finding more GMOs than accepted in them, not to allow the entry of such food to Armenia.

Consumers Rights Protection NGO representatives told ArmeniaNow that there is no statistics confirming the existence of GMOs in Armenia, however, there are legislative acts that regulate the sphere. For example, Article 8 of the Law on Food Safety issued since 2010 demands mentioning the amount of GMOs in the label of the food which contains GMOs.

The decree of the Minister of Health in 2010 defines what kinds of GMOs and how much is allowed to use in Armenia, moreover, the usage of GMOs in children’s food and in dairy products is completely banned.

The Standard Dialogue Company holds laboratory expertise in order to reveal the amount of GMOs in food in Armenia on a private basis. This spring during expertise works genetically modified soya was found in sausage of Armenian production in the company’s laboratory; GMOs were found in fish food, too.

However, Director of the Standard Dialogue Company Artyom Mehrabyan did not disclose which company the sausage with GMO belonged to, because during the expertise the samples are submitted to the expertise without labels in order to maintain the principle of equality.