Armenia’s seed producers say traceability is the weak link in the seed market
Armenia still has no regulated mechanism for tracing seed sales. Ishkhan Hovsepyan, chairman of the Association of Producers of Seeds and Planting Materials, said this in an interview with BusinessDaily at the AGRO EXPO exhibition in Yerevan. The association has raised the issue and is studying international practice.
“The traceability mechanism for seed sales is very important, and unfortunately it is not yet regulated in the Republic of Armenia,” Hovsepyan said. According to him, bad faith can occur at any link in the chain. “That is the human factor: where there are people, it is possible. But it is a legislative gap in seed circulation, because traceability is very important,” he stressed.
The association aims to develop the chain from plant breeder to seed grower and farmer. Hovsepyan said varieties created by breeders should be sold to farmers with their intellectual property rights respected, while seed growers pay the variety’s author a royalty, or licence fee. “The seed grower receives the seed and passes the royalty on to the breeder. This chain, this value chain, needs to develop, and the association’s goal is to develop this chain,” he added.
The association was founded two years ago and has 32 members: seed producers, seed-selling companies and farmers. According to Hovsepyan, Armenia has been a member of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) since 2024. “It is an international organisation that protects plant breeders’ rights. All seeds and planting material have their own passport,” he noted.
According to the State Revenue Committee of Armenia, Armenia imported $10.5 million worth of seeds for sowing (HS code 1209) in 2025, down 1.6% from 2024 ($10.7 million). The largest suppliers were Peru ($973.5 thousand), France ($901 thousand), Chile ($898 thousand) and the Netherlands ($883.6 thousand). Imports of live plants, cuttings and seedlings (HS 0602) totalled $18.9 million, down 2.8%, with $7.8 million (41.4%) coming from the Netherlands.
According to the Statistical Committee of Armenia, in 2025 the area under grain and pulses shrank 5.1% from 2024 to 110.5 thousand hectares, but yields rose from 1.96 to 2.41 tonnes per hectare and the harvest grew 15.9% to 253 thousand tonnes. The potato area fell 7.5% to 16.2 thousand hectares, while the harvest increased 1.4% to 342.4 thousand tonnes (a yield of 21.08 tonnes per hectare). The vegetable harvest from 17.7 thousand hectares was up 3.0% at 668.8 thousand tonnes, while the melon and gourd harvest declined 5.4% to 116.1 thousand tonnes.
According to Hovsepyan, Armenia has competitive locally produced seeds of potatoes, grain, vegetables and melons, and some of them are exported. He did not name companies or varieties. “We have very good locally produced vegetable and melon seeds; they are competitive and are even exported,” he noted. “Our breeders are achieving quite significant success,” Hovsepyan stressed.
The association has a partnership with Armenia’s Ministry of Economy. “The association raises all the problems, and we try to solve them based on international and European experience,” Hovsepyan said, adding that the association’s representatives recently met the local seed producers’ association in Hungary to exchange experience.
