Roses are destroyed, workers are fired — what is happening to the flower growers of Armenia

Flowers grown in Armenian greenhouses no longer reach Russian buyers. Investments are frozen, farmers are calculating losses and trying to figure out how to repay loans and save farms. Dozens of farms that have been working for the Russian market for years are forced to sell products on the oversaturated local market or simply destroy batches.

Since May 22, the Rosselkhoznadzor has suspended the import of floral products from Armenia to Russia. The stories of the affected flower growers after that are cited by Sputnik Armenia.

"Our state has blocked one road without offering any alternative in return," says 45—year-old Aram, the owner of a greenhouse in the Tsiatsan community of the Armavir region.

For more than ten years he has been engaged in floriculture — he grows astromeria and lisianthus, almost the entire volume of which he exported to Russia.

"It is no longer possible to sell such a number of flowers in Armenia. Only in our village flowers are grown on an area of 23 hectares. If exports stop, these volumes will never be sold on the local market," he says.

Aram provides greenhouses with water from its own wells, but the maintenance of the farm is expensive.

"Only from mid—December 2025 to mid-February of this year, I used up more than 5 million drams of electricity: I pay more than 300 thousand drams for electricity every month," he explains.

Months of work and millions of drams of investments are now under threat.

"This year I specially planted light flowers, because in Such are in demand in Russia. Brought new seedlings, replaced the old varieties. If I had known that such a situation would arise, I would not have made such investments," says the farmer.

His fellow villager Volodya was warned about possible problems with exports — as well as other farmers.

"I collected flowers on May 20, took them on the 21st to send them, then they called me and said: "Go take it back." I brought them back, the flowers were in the fridge for a week. I was going to send in Russia has 10,000 roses in one batch," he said.

Aram used to send flowers to Russia by plane once or twice a week — the route through Lars was too risky for perishable goods.

Volodya's disappointment reached the limit. He decided to close the greenhouses, turn off the cooling systems, fire the workers, and spend the money allocated for fertilizers on something else. According to him, dozens of people employed in seasonal jobs have already been left without earnings. Only on the days of planting seedlings, he paid ten workers about 70 thousand drams.

"If I produce a thousand flowers a day, 700 of which were intended for export, now I am taking the whole thousand to the Yerevan market, in Charbakh. There are many people like me. Sell such a volume in It is impossible for Armenia. Many greenhouse owners today simply throw away grown flowers or do not collect them at all. Why collect? If you take them to the market, you don't know if they will sell out or not. People don't understand what to do," says Volodya.

He is particularly indignant at the inaction of state structures.

"If they had said that problems might arise after May 21, I would have made other decisions. I would not buy new seedlings, I would not change greenhouses, I would not make investments," he emphasizes.

Volodya is also skeptical about talks about reorientation to European markets.

"If tomorrow they say: "Export to Europe," then such requirements and expenses will be introduced that small and medium-sized enterprises will not be able to handle. As a result, only large players will remain on the market," the entrepreneur said.

According to Aram, after the emergence of problems with exports to Russian farmers have actually been left without a major buyer and are now incurring losses trying to keep the business created at the expense of credit funds. He noted that difficulties with exports not only deprived producers of income, but also jeopardized the further development of the entire industry.

If in 2024 the export of Armenian flowers to Russia amounted to $ 36 million, then in 2025 it will be $ 53.6 million. Not only the volume has increased, but also the average cost: from $ 3031 to $ 5418 dollars per ton.

On June 4, the Armenian government decided to pay compensation to economic entities that exported greenhouse products and flowers in June 2026.

The 50 million euros promised by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to solve the problems of the Armenian agricultural sector do not even make up 5 percent of the volume of flowers, strawberries and vegetables exported to Russia. The former Prime Minister of Armenia Hrant Bagratyan said in an interview with Hraparak.

According to him, the volume of deliveries of such products to the Russian market reaches about one billion euros. Therefore, he regards everything that is happening as an attempt to save the rating of the government before the elections. In his opinion, "90 percent of the population understands that Nikol Pashinyan is to blame for the current situation. And now they are trying to save some fragments so that Pashinyan gets certain votes."

Bagratyan also recalled the statement of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk that Russia does not intend to finance Armenia, which, according to him, is going to fight against the Russian Federation.

"He correctly says: we are not going to the European Union, we subscribe to the fact that we are going to join Ukraine needs to fight against Russia, as this is a requirement of the European Union. As you know, Europe wants to declare war on Russia in 2029-2030. They say that Russia is allegedly attacking them," said Hrant Bagratyan.