Yerevan, September 1 /Mediamax/. According to the forecasts of the Chairman of the Wine-makers’ Union of Armenia Avag Harutyunian, this year the wine-brandy companies will purchase 100-105 thousand tons of grapes: last year the purchase volume made 96 000 tons.

Avag Harutyunian said in an interview to Mediamax that about 80 000 tons will go as raw material for the brandy production and only 20 000 tons will be used to produce wine.

This year the purchase season will start about 10 days earlier than usual - in 15 days the brandy producers will start the purchase, and the purchase time for wine producers will last from September 25 to October 10.

According to the preliminary calculations, the price for the brandy sort grapes in the Ararat valley and in the North-East of Armenia will make about 120-140 AMD per kilo, and the price for the wine sort grapes will make 140-170 AMD. In the Vayots Dzor marz of Armenia the starting price for the wine sort grapes will make about 175-190 AMD and may increase for 20-30 more AMD depending on the quality of the raw material.

It is expected that this year the whole volume of the grape harvest in Armenia will exceed the last year’s indices for 10-15 thousand tons - in 2005, the harvest in the republic made 164 000 tons.