On May 31, in response to a written request, the Ministry of Economy of Armenia stated that Russia retains its position as the largest and, in fact, the only grain supplier to Armenia. "Since the beginning of the year, the republic has already imported 41% of the total volume of grain crops it needs in 2023," it said.

The ministry explained that this year the country needs to import about 396 thousand tons of grain: wheat - 295 thousand tons, barley - 33 thousand tons, corn - 68 thousand tons. However, from the beginning of the year until May 19, 165.2 thousand tons of cereals have been brought into the country: 122.1 thousand tons of wheat, 20.4 thousand tons of barley, and 22.7 thousand tons of corn.

"99.9% of grains were imported from the Russian Federation," the Armenian Ministry of Economy indicated.

In recent years, Armenia has been steadily importing almost the entire volume of grain from Russia. At the same time, in the last five years, the volume of grain imports from the Russian Federation turned out to be the largest in 2022.

The ministry also explained that the republic's average annual demand for grain is 527 thousand tons: wheat - 385 thousand tons, barley - 70 thousand tons, corn - 72 thousand tons. In 2022, the level of self-sufficiency in wheat and barley in Armenia increased slightly - up to 27.5% (from 23.2% in 2021) and up to 59.6% (against 49.1% in 2021), respectively. At the same time, the indicator of self-sufficiency in corn in 2022 decreased by almost 50% - to 4.8% (against 8.4% in 2021).