A Biology Teacher Has Made Her Dream Organic Farm a Reality Thanks to EU Support.

With the purpose of boosting organic agriculture in Armenia, the grant programme Organic Agriculture Support Initiative (OASI), launched in 2015 by the EU, has created suitable conditions for Armenian producers of organic goods to sell their products in the local and international markets.

Gohar Movsisyan, a biology teacher at the secondary school in Teghenik village of Kotayk marz, uses the brand name Bari Farm (“Kind Farm”) to offer her organic fruits and vegetables on the market, and the company has now established a solid foundation for itself thanks to this programme.

Gohar confessed that, although Bari Farm was a family business and each member of the family has his or her own function, the idea of organic agriculture had been hers alone, and she had faced a lot of scepticism at first.

“Many people didn’t believe that it was possible to do organic farming and also to sell the produce. But we proved that it was possible. I feel a sense of victory,” she said.

The Organic Agriculture Support Initiative (OASI) programme has connected Armenian farmers and agricultural processers to Armenian buyers and interested companies in Europe and other parts of the world. Armenian organic food producers have received the opportunity to participate in international trade fairs for organic products. Gohar Movsisyan participated in the renowned BIOFACH trade fair for organic food, and she returned from there with new ideas.

“The most important idea is that I want to create a small processing unit in the plum orchard where I can process plums,” she explained.

Bari Farm already has organic certification which, in Gohar Movsisyan’s words, was evidence that her long-standing personal dream has come true.

“The support of the European Union has not just been technical in nature, there has also been tremendous moral support. It was a boost that allowed me to make my 10-year-old dream a reality. I had been thinking of engaging in organic agriculture for a long time and, eventually, it has become a reality thanks to the European Union.”