In the orchards of Armenia’s Ararat and Kotayk regions, Greenco has grown from a 30-hectare start-up in 2017 into a 250-hectare fruit producer supplying apples, pears, cherries, apricots, nectarines and grapes across the region, using tree plants imported from Italy. This year, cherries turned out to be the most profitable crop.

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The company farms across two distinct sites. “One of our orchards is in the Ararat region, in the south of the country. The other is in Kotayk, at 1,800 metres above sea level” director Robert Kotsinyan explains. The southern site, one of the hottest regions of Armenia, is where the stone fruits are grown, producing some of the earliest varieties in the region. “The Kotayk orchard only grows apples and pears,” he adds.

Both sites grow apples, but on different schedules: the southern orchard harvests in mid-August, while Kotayk follows a later, staggered calendar. “Our southern orchard is very hot and dry, almost impossible for pears. Kotayk gets a lot more rain.” To manage both sites, Greenco works with several Italian companies on soil and climate analysis, virus-free cuttings, hail and rain protection, automatic drip irrigation, weather stations and moisture sensors, all manageable remotely by smartphone, with climate control carried out by the Italian company Irritec.

© Greenco LLC
The company has expanded to roughly 250 hectares of intensive orchards, growing apples (155 ha), pears (10 ha), cherries (30 ha), apricots (30 ha), nectarines (20 ha) and grapes (5 ha).

Why grow so many different fruits?
Greenco spreads its production across six crops for two reasons. “First, it lets us offer different varieties instead of depending on one product.” The second reason is about people. From mid-May to October, we are continuously harvesting. It would be quite difficult to find enough people if we had to harvest everything at once.” The calendar runs roughly like this: cherries and apricots from mid-May, nectarines from mid-June, then apples, and finally grapes. Apples are the exception to the “early variety” logic that governs the rest of the farm. “We grow early, mid-season and late apple varieties. Combined with cold storage, this allows us to supply apples for much longer than any of our other fruit.”

Water and the people behind the fruit
Irrigation water comes from underground, drawn from around 180 metres deep, feeding a reservoir that takes six to seven days to refill and is kept as close to full as possible. Labour, too, is built for continuity. “We hire mostly from villages near each orchard, and we try to keep the same teams every year,” Kotsinyan says. “They already know the crop, the trees, and how to harvest properly.”

From orchard to warehouse
The company runs its own sorting and packing operation, with two separate Unitec lines, one for apples and one for cherries. “Our cherry line sorts by size and by internal quality,” Kotsinyan says. “Sorting by size is commercially important, as prices scale with size.” For storage, the company built a facility with Italian partner Fruit Control Equipments, with a capacity for about 3,000 tonnes and controlled atmosphere technology. “That is what lets us keep apples fresh and supply the market from early season right through to around May the following year,” he says. Pears, by contrast, are usually sold by the New Year.

© Greenco LLC
For storage, the company built a facility with Italian partner Fruit Control Equipments, with a capacity for about 3,000 tonnes and controlled atmosphere technology.

When Russia closed its doors
Historically, Greenco exported about 95% of its production, mostly to large Russian supermarket chains. On 1 June this year, right at the start of the main harvest, Russia closed its border to fresh fruit exports. “This was a major disruption,” Kotsinyan acknowledges, “though we had already been through something similar once before, so we had some experience.” He sums up his outlook on the setback: “Business is not about how you act when everything is okay, but about how you act when things get difficult.”

The impact differed sharply by crop. Apricot prices in Russia had been unusually high this year, “so losing that market was especially costly.” Apples were hit hardest of all. “That is the most painful consequence of the closure,” he says. Normally 400 to 500 tonnes of early-variety apples are sold fresh right after harvest, mostly to Russia. This year, only about 150 tonnes found buyers: two truckloads went to Kazakhstan, two to Dubai, and the rest stayed on the local market. Grapes and pears were less affected, since much of that production traditionally stays domestic. “Part is still exported,” he notes, “so as not to flood the local market and hurt the small growers.”

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Looking for new markets
Since the closure, Greenco has pushed hard into new territory, exporting to Georgia, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Poland, with talks under way for Serbia. The company is also pursuing GlobalG.A.P. certification, expected by year-end, as a step toward European retail. “Overall it’s a lower price than what we had in Russia,” Kotsinyan admits. Dubai stands out as promising. Turkish exporters, however, remain tough price competition there.

Kotsinyan also sees potential in India, where apples are scarce, as well as Indonesia and other Asian markets. Armenia’s government has helped soften the impact with new subsidies, paying growers about 40 cents per exported kilogram for apricots and 30 cents for apples. Building trust abroad, he stresses, takes time: “Market reputation isn’t just about one company. Sometimes it reflects on the credibility of the whole exporting country.”

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Logistics and packaging
Shipping habits are shifting too. Cherries bound for Dubai and Qatar now travel by both air and truck, and Greenco is weighing extra protective packaging, such as ethylene absorbers, for longer journeys. Packaging itself has changed with the market. “For Russia we mostly used plastic crates,” says Kotsinyan. “For the new markets we’ve moved to cardboard cartons,” including double-layer boxes and larger single-layer versions, tailored to what each customer wants.

Looking ahead
Greenco will present itself at Fruit Attraction in Madrid, as part of Armenia’s national booth (4B14), which Kotsinyan hopes will bring international visibility and new importers. Apples remain the company’s biggest short-term worry, given how fast the early varieties must sell and how much volume once went to Russia. For the rest of the portfolio, cherries, apricots, grapes, pears and nectarines, he is more confident. “With diversification of markets, certification, and continued investment in sorting and storage, we believe we can weather the loss of our traditional main market in the seasons ahead.”

For more information:
Robert Kotsinyan (director)
Greenco LLC
0028, RA, Yerevan (Armenia)
Tel.: +374 44715061
[email protected]
www.greenco.am