Positive Planet Recognizes Pernod Ricard’s Commitment to Developing Sustainable Cooperatives in Armenia
Paris, December 8, 2016 /3BL Media/ -- In partnership with Positive Planet, Pernod Ricard has implemented a sustainable agriculture project in Armenia by helping local farmers structure and perpetuate their business. Positive Planet has awarded Samvel Manucharyan, in charge of the project, the Positive Award for “Access to market” during its 8th edition of the Positive Award ceremony held last night in Paris.
Left unkept for the last forty years, vines have been rehabilitated since the beginning of the project in October 2014. Six cooperatives have been created to organize the labor of Armenian farmers in the Tavush region, offering them technical assistance to manage their business and equipment. Agronomists from the Yerevan Brandy Company, Pernod Ricard’s affiliate in Armenia since 1999, have also donated their time to train local workers to the “Rendement +” culture techniques, giving pointers on how to fertilize, plow and trim vines.
Since the beginning of this project over a year ago, harvests grew by 45%, allowing the farmers’ families to increase their income from the first year and arousing interest from neighboring villages to join existing cooperatives of form new ones. The project has a target of 20 cooperatives of grapes producers, representing about 3000 beneficiaries.
Samvel Manucharyan, who runs one of the cooperatives which work directly with Yerevan Brandy Company, accepted his award with emotion. An agronomist and former mayor of Varagavan, he employs 3 people, and, thanks to the support of Positive Planet and Pernod Ricard, saw his production increase by 31% from 2014 to 2015. Samvuel is personally committed to developing his local community by improving living conditions for vine-growers and bringing Armenian vines back to their former glory.
Bruno Rain, Managing Direction Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility, invited Samvel Manucharyan to present his project to Pernod Ricard’s employees at the Headquarts in Paris. He welcomed Samvel explaining: “There is no greater rewards for our CSR initiatives than seeing an entrepreneur creat his business and contribute so actively to his community’s development. Entrepreneurial spirit is one of Pernod Ricard’s main values, and it’s really moving to see it manifest itself in our affiliates”.
