by Susanna Petrosyan In the last decade, the notion of life quality has already become part of our everyday life. Modern household appliances have come into use (although with a delay) in Armenia and raised our living conditions to a new qualitative level. The notion of quality of life includes the sale of various kinds of “overseas” fruit in Armenian supermarkets the whole year round, whereas in the past they were only available from time to time. All the abovementioned and many other things were at first considered as something new and unusual, but people rapidly get used to new and high-quality items. The philosophy of “life quality” also incorporates the idea of a healthy lifestyle and one of its major components – organic food, ecologically pure foodstuffs without any chemical impurities. Green Day (www.organicclub.am) - the first in Armenia shop of organic products opened in Yerevan in early February. It is located at 1/21 Azatutyan Avenue. The founder of Green Day shop is Card Agroservice, a subsidiary of CARD Center of Agribusiness and Agriculture Development. The shop was set up and operates under the CARD Center’s program aimed at promoting the development of the market of organic products in Armenia, including measures on informing the consumer about the great demand for high-quality certified organic products throughout the world. “While implementing the program, we came to the conclusion that in Armenia, people know very little about such foods and goods and for that reason a decision was taken to keep the public informed through Green Day shop, which is a kind of visiting card of such goods,” said Naira Mkrtchian, Head of the Marketing Unit of the CARD Center of Agribusiness and Agriculture Development. According to her, the participants of the program seek to import commodities of well-known foreign companies manufacturing organic products. “Certification of organic products is a long and complex process,” she stressed. The shop is well stocked with high-quality food, cosmetics, and detergents, most of them made in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The range of available foodstuffs includes the coffee “Wiener Verfuhrung” (Austria) at 3,600 AMD (10 U.S. dollars) for 500 grams, a vast selection of “SonnentoR” Austrian tea at 2,500 AMD for 1000 grams, finest chocolates of the famous German company Vivani at 980 AMD or a 100-gram bar, cakes and jam made in the Netherlands, macaroni and other food. The shop also offers a wide range of cosmetics and perfumes, mostly of German companies such as Logona, Neobio, and Sante. Affordable prices: shampoos for 2,500 AMD, shower gel prices range from 1,900 to 2,400 AMD, facial creams for 3,000 AMD, etc. In Green Day shop you will find a large assortment of detergents, dishwashing liquids, and stain removers manufactured by Ecover (Belgium). It is envisaged expanding the range of offered goods. In particular, there are plans to import dairy, meat and fish products from Germany in three or four months. Naira Mkrtchian expressed conviction that organic products will find their consumers in Armenia. “In our country, certified organic products are in short supply, while many people suffering from certain diseases prefer to buy ecologically pure products,” she said. In her words the possibility of producing organic products in Armenia at the expense of the profit from selling goods in Green Day shop is currently under consideration. It only remains to hope that the outlook for production of organic goods is bright in Armenia which has some opportunities, even though limited ones. After all, it is still a new phenomenon relating to healthy lifestyle and life quality.

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