On 4 July, the EU4Business initiative launched a new project in Armenia aimed at improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Armenia and other Eastern Partner countries, to help connect them to international and EU markets.
The project ‘Eastern Partnership: Ready to Trade – an EU4Business initiative’ formally started in March 2018 with an SME survey from the agro-processing sector, conducted in cooperation with the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centre of Armenia (SME DNC).
Based on the results of the survey, as well as the findings of the project inception phase, three value chains have been prioritised for project assistance in view of their export potential to the EU. These are the processed fruit and vegetables, dried fruit and vegetables, and herbal tea value chains. The survey results show that 25% of surveyed companies are already exporting to the EU and 32% have expressed interest in entering the EU market.
A value chain analysis was also conducted for the selected product groups, the results of which were presented and discussed during the event.
