OVOP in Armenia

OVOP in Armenia

The One Village One Product program in Armenia has been implemented since March 2013 by the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center(SME DNC) with the technical assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA). The Armenian OVOP concept had been developed as “the integrated efforts to promote local economy, small enterprises, products and services in a coordinated manner, by utilizing local resources and culture. Three catchwords Touch the Culture, Feel the Nature and Taste the Tradition are used to express the Armenian OVOP concept. 

During the first three years of the program's implementation, the Japanese government provided almost $2 million assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), with majority of them being start-up enterprises engaged in wine, cheese, dried fruits production and tourism. There was 296 start-ups and operating businesses received consulting and training assistance in the framework of the project. 139 of them participated in various trainings, 90 entrepreneurs participated in marketing and branding trainings, based on Armenian OVOP concept, and 67 start-ups participated in trainings for development of tourism services and related sectors. 

After finishing the fisrt 3 years, in 2016, a new OVOP program for 74 million AMD was funded. For this new phase, 11 new guesthouses of the tourism enterprises were established and 21 start-ups were financed. The program provided 33.1 milion AMD to support the establishment of training centre for dried food, olive and cheese productions in Tavush, Syunik and Ararat regions. The program supported the establishment and operation of 6 marketing platforms with the participation of the 47 SMEs, 4 festival events, "OVOP Armenia" Facebook account and one research of consumer markets. JICA has conducted technological knowledge and business plan preparation trainings. SME DNC of Armenia provided loan guarantees to the start-ups with the best business plans during those trainings. 

The major OVOP locations and products of Armenia are cheese in Lusashogh village ( Ararat Region) and Khndzoresk village (Syunik Region); Olive product in Bagratashen village (Tavush Region); dried fruits in Bagratashen village (Tavush Region), in Meghri town (Syunik region), in Armavir region; Wine in Areni village (Vayot Dzor region); tourism development in Tatev sub-region (Syunik region); dried spice and herb products in Vedi town (Vayots Dzor region); Agro tourism in Chiva and Rind villages (Vayots Dzor Region)…