YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–No solution has been found to the problem between the French "Pernod Ricard" firm which owns the Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) and the Armenian government. The YBC management confirmed the intention of the French firm to apply to the International Arbitration unless the government defends the YBC’s interests. In such a case–Armenia will have to pay a huge fine and will lose investors’ confidence.
The YBC management has not–until now–received any response from the Armenian government to the recent statement of YBC President and Director General Pierre Larretche. The statement demanded that the illegal activities of other brandy-producers in Russia be put to an end.
Early this month–the "Pernod Ricard" firm made a decision on suspending the supplies of the brandies "Akhtamar,"Nairi,"Dvin" and "Vaspurakan" to Russia. The reason for the decision is that a bogus Armenian firm–arrogating the YBC trade marks to itself–is selling brandy of an unknown origin in Russia. The company is called bogus because it does not produce brandy.
The French firm is also concerned over the fact that early last year the brandy factories in Saratov and St. Petersburg owned by the Armenian government started the production and selling of brandies–using the trade marks "Armenian cognac" and "Armenian brandy," which is a violation of the agreement signed by the French company and the Armenian government last May.
The YBC has suspended development and investment programs.