CRISIS REACHED FAIRS
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Armenian fairs are emptying day by day. Most booths stand idle as few customers visit fairs nowadays. On the other hand, prices keep going down. For example, a jacket once costing 80 000 drams can be bought at the price of 40 000 today. Tradespeople say they try to sell clothes at their cost price to be able to pay the taxes.
To attract customers sellers have to praise their goods and apply different skills. An employee of the “Rossia” trade centre pictured the impact of the world financial crisis on their business. “The crisis starts here,” he said pointing at sweaters costing 5000 drams. He assured us that still a month ago he sold the same sweaters at 10000 drams.
Marketers say they cannot even pay the daily fee of 4 000 drams.
The customs fees have also gone up. Traders have to pay $8 per a kilo of cargo instead of former $5-6. Besides, the plants of Turkey and Korea Armenians used to trade with have curtailed their production capacity.
