Yerevan, September 8 /Mediamax/. The Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) plans to purchase 30 000 tons of grapes this year – 5 000 tons more than last year.

As the Production Director of YBC Philippe Thibaud stated in Yerevan today, this year the purchase season will start a little bit earlier than usual, which is reasoned by climate conditions.

Already on September 11, YBC will start the reception of grapes in its Armavir branch. The purchase season in the Aygavan and Tavush branches will correspondingly start on September 15 and 21.

The cost for one kilo of grapes in Armavir and Aygavan will make 130, and in Tavush – 123 AMD.

The farmers, cooperating with YBC for a long time, will receive bonus payments at the rate of 15 AMD for each kilo of grapes, which is more than the last year’s index for 50%.

The whole number of farmers, having concluded agreements with the YBC, makes 5 500.

In 2005-2006, the volume of the investments in the YBC branches made about 1mln Euro. The most part of the investments was directed to the Armavir and Aygavan branches, in particular, to increase of reception volumes and the processing of the grapes, as well as to the creation of mobile stations for reception of raw materials. Due to the investments, additional reservoirs were made up this year for the reception and processing of grapes, having the volume of 3mln 300 000 [33 000 hectoliters] wine raw materials.

The Yerevan Brandy Company is a part of the international Pernod Ricard group.