Yerevan is in an egg crisis. There are no eggs to be had in most shops. Why?

According to the newspapers, there just isn't enough eggs to go around. Radio Free Europe writes:

The government blamed the unprecedented shortages on increased consumer demand stemming from household preparations for the New Year and Christmas holidays. Its critics claimed, however, that they were caused by a de facto monopolization of yet another sector of the Armenian economy.

Buying eggs in Yerevan shops became all but impossible on Monday after their retail prices of jumped by at least 40 percent, to between 80 and 120 drams (33 U.S. cents) apiece, in a matter of days. The situation hardly improved the next day.

The government and the country’s leading egg producers and food retailers have still not clearly explained the reasons for the crisis. The businesses declined comment on Tuesday.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Economy Ministry said only it both producers and trading companies have begun importing eggs from abroad to satisfy “the population’s additional demand.”

The State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC) said it has launched an inquiry aimed at determining whether the shortages resulted from any anti-trust practices. Still, a SPEC official, Aram Sahakian, suggested that “speculative commercial demand” is to blame for them.

My mother-in-law told us that yesterday eggs were selling for as high as 140 dram (about 39 cents) each at City Yerevan, but she was able to find them at Nor Zovk up the street for 60 dram each (God bless His Holiness), which is the usual price. Our neighborhood Star had zero eggs in stock last night--in its place were squeeze packs of mayonnaise all lined up in neat rows. The word on the street is that the owner of that supermarket chain, parliament member and infamous oligarch Samvel Alexanyan, purchased tons of eggs to stockpile and sell them in his City Yerevan supermarkets--known for selling bootleg vodka--at prices nearly three times higher than usual. The lowest price I have personally seen for a single egg anywhere in recent memory has been 50 dram.

Sure enough, City Yerevan is today selling eggs at a higher price than other stores, assuming you can find them. Out of the five supermarkets we visited during our evening walk, only two had any eggs--City Yerevan for 75 dram each and SAS at 60 dram. The price went back to somewhat normal only after the scandal was well out in the open.

I just read a report on News.am about the egg crisis. A representative of a national consumer advocacy group named Frunze Hayetyan said that the price hike is mainly due to the increase in chicken feed costs as well as increased demand for eggs--apparently Armenians are consuming 1.5 times more eggs than they did a year ago.  I wonder how he came up with that bizarre statistic? An increase in consumption coincides with more mouths to feed. And the exodus trend hasn't reversed since the end of 2009.

I heard another rumor spread by one of the opposition newspapers that the president's brother had a hand in the great egg conspiracy--domestic inventories were prevented from hitting the shelves so that he could import them from Iran to sell on the marketplace at his own set price. But somehow I have a hard time buying into that.

I don't remember Armenians suffering from an egg shortage for New Year's in the years that I've been around for the holidays, and I know there wasn't a crisis like this last December. The currency exchange rate, however, always seems to fluctuate in favor of the seller, that's for certain. It's strange to think that demand for eggs has nearly doubled in 12 months time, and I have a hard time believing that egg producers are simply not able to meet the need. Egg companies know full well that this is the busiest season of the year for buying food products, so they would be prepared to sell all they could. The silence from the egg producers is dubious as well.

Artur has a lot more to say about this rotten egg business on his blog.  Seems he had a lot more difficulty finding eggs than we did. To be honest, my wife and I were clueless about the egg shortage until my mother-in-law revealed the good news about the sighting--she bought ten for us.

Hopefully, the government will start taking measures to ensure that this unexpected price manipulation will not happen ever again. No one is going to believe that egg supplies just happened to run out because people suddenly decided to eat three-egg omelets. For those who were lucky enough to find them, enjoy as long as you can before the desperate search for egg bliss resumes.

Labels: Economy, Food and Drink

Labels: Armenian Dogs

Yesterday, walking back from taking out the trash I noticed that the two front tires of my Niva were completely deflated. All sorts of thoughts came to mind about who did it – the delivery men working for the fast food restaurant just below me, one of the neighbors who can’t park in my space, or some of the kids in the neighborhood who have no other way of keeping themselves entertained.

Labels: Personal Experiences, Thoughts and Musings

The Armenian Weekly recently published an article that I wrote about a gasoline vendor who is based in the Aresh district of Erebuni, Yerevan. Here's an excerpt:

Habajian has been filling gasoline since 1998. His business is registered with the government and he, like any small business owner, is obliged to pay taxes regularly.

A truck filled a tank in his garage that held one metric ton of gasoline at least once a week. The gasoline was then poured into 5 or 10-gallon water jugs to be transported to the front of the house and filled into vehicles.

Now, because of the latest in a string of lawsuits filed jointly by his immediate neighbors, Habajian loads the jugs in the trunk of an old Latvian hatchback that barely runs. He tells his customers who pull up in front of his garage to follow him 100 meters down the street, stopping in front of a tiny auto parts store where he fills as much gasoline as his clients need.

The issues with his neighbors began in February. When the authorities arrived to inform him of the complaints, he removed his gas tank. Subsequently, the media televised that the tank had been removed.

The government is required to inspect his premises for safety violations; yet despite protests from his neighbors, nothing dangerous was ever determined to have been transpiring while running his business.

Although owning an independent gasoline station in Armenia is indeed possible, the related operational costs and tax payments offset the advantages of running one. The overwhelming majority of cars are fueled by natural gas, which makes the volume of gasoline sales low by comparison.

You can read the entire article on the Weekly's web site.

Labels: Social and Cultural

I just came back from a concert performed by the opera legend of the universe Placido Domingo. The concert was held at the Karen Demirjian Sports and Concert Complex (a.k.a., the "Hamalir") as part of the Yerevan Perspectives 11th Annual Music Festival.

The concert was astounding. Placido was joined by soparanos Ana Maria Martinez -- a Grammy award winner -- and Rosy Anoush Svazlian, along with baritone Barseg Tumanyan, and they were all magnicifient. Accompanied by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, all four singers shined for well over two hours of exhilarating vocal performances.

The one thing I always appreciated of Placido was his selfless devotion to his audience. I have never detected any hint of arrogance from him in any television appearance or interview that I've heard him give. On stage, Placido was as gracious and charming as ever.

I admit that my knowledge of Opera is extremely limited, so I could not identify many of the arias and dramatic scenes that were performed throughout the evening. Opera requires a sincere, selfless devotion to which I have yet to commit, regrettably. I am guessing that a good chunk of the performances were from works by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini. I saw some programs in a few people's hands but I could not obtain one since they seemed to have been limited in number, or they were not available to those in the upper balcony, where I was sitting.

Songs I did recognize, however, were "Bésame Mucho" and "Granada," a tune that is identified with him foremost.

Placido Domingo's performance in Yerevan

All of the concert's attendees in the upper deck at least were obvious lovers of the arts. Most of them were dressed impeccably, some with opera glasses in hand. They seemed to be in harmony with the music being performed and were roaring with applause at the end of each song. I am assuming the main floor, where the expensive seats were, was filled with mainly those who were there to see a legend but were not necessarily in tune with what was going on.

To close the concert the Panos Choir, which is composed of amateur, handicapped singers, joined the musicians and featured performers on stage for two songs. The entire audience was touched to hear them sing the great, nostalgic anthem"Yerevan, My Erebuni," I song I have known since early childhood.  That heartwarming performance essentially brought the house down.

A note about the Karen Demirjian concert hall -- the acoustics were very good, much better than I expected. The entire hall, walls and ceiling, are covered in dark walnut paneling, providing a wonderfully rich resonance. The sound was crystal clear, every slight nuance of the singers' interpretations was heard without a single blemish. It was my first time in the hall and I was quite impressed. The entire building, not just the hall, is a marvel of architecture; it looks like it's about to lift off from the Tsitserakaberd hill and blast off into deep space.

It was no surprise that security was extremely tight since the Armenian President was in attendance, with his secret service guards on alert 10 meters apart from each other throughout the building, red berets loitering outside and beat cops roaming about. It was actually overkill. One of the heads of the "Emergency Services" in plain clothes at the front door, holding an ancient walkie talkie, barked at me because I walked by an oblivious woman who was supposed to be ripping tickets but didn't bother to let me know -- I think she was actually nervous about the intense police presence. Oddly enough, security guards were not obvious on the upper floors.

The show ran over an hour late since people had trouble finding their seats, as there was a shortage of ushers -- I saw only two to manage a crowd of at least a thousand. A fifteen minute intermission stretched into a half-hour, probably to accomodate the carefree smokers and slow movers. Armenians have trouble with stairways -- everywhere I go I see people, young and old alike, struggling to climb them in either direction. Since it was necessary to go up four flights of stairs to reach the upper deck, the night dragged on much longer than it should have.

Regardless, Placido Domingo's concert in Armenia was an event of a lifetime, and it was impossible to miss. I was there thanks to my wonderful wife who presented me with a ticket. We can only hope that he will make his visits to Armenia a regular practice. A free concert on Republic Square would be fitting so a wider audience can hear this giant of opera.

You can read more about Domingo's visit to Yerevan, in Spanish, on the Adios Amigo, Adios blog.

Labels: Arts and Entertainment, Music