WHERE QUALITY GOES IN BEFORE THE PRICE GOES ON

Swiss Meat & Sausage Co. to host Armenian Meat Processors Group

Armenian Meat Processors have made preparations to send delegates to the United States to exchange fellowship ideas with other meat processors. Their main emphasis is on meat handling, safety and equipment. Part of this training will be hosted by Swiss Meat & Sausage Company, Hermann, Mo.

The delegation is part of the Cochran Fellowship Program, named for Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi and was made possible through arrangements made by Jeanne Schwaller, Ph.D., Jefferson City, MO. Missouri was chosen as an excellent state for training due to the similarities of their meat products and the many small meat processors in the state, as well as the excellent small meat science facility at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Topics to be covered during the training at Swiss Meat will be meat producing and processing from packaging to marketing; sanitation; food safety; slaughterhouse business management, including deer, elk and bison slaughter; and sanitation standards for meat and freezing technology.

The delegates will include Levon Gyulkhasyan-Consultant, Rural Development Special Projects, USDA MAP, 74 Teryan St, Yerevan. He is presently involved with USDA MAP-marketing agriculture project as well as helping entrepreneurs build small slaughterhouses.

The USDA MAP project has plans to expand slaughter houses to five new locations. He will be directly involved in construction, managing and marketing of these houses.

Sergey Bayatyan-Director, ARID Bridge LTD, 1 Yerevan Road, Yeghegnadzor, supervises the construction and processing of products in a slaughterhouse. He works with the USDA project and ARID Goat Center. Their slaughterhouse was designed by an American Specialist.

Argisht Bakoyan-Entrepreneur, Barozh, previously worked in Russia transporting livestock for slaughter to butcheries and supermarkets. The area of Barozh in Armenia is entirely dependent on the livestock industry for survival. He plans to educate and assist the locals in proper slaughterhouse management.

Manvel Avetisyan-Entrepreneur, Burnazyan, Gavar, owns a slaughterhouse facility which was built by the USDA-MAP project. He slaughters animals himself and sells to local markets. His was the first mini-slaughtering facility established in Armenia in 2004. He has the potential to serve as a resource person for potential butchers all over his region.

The final delegate is Assistant Professor Hensel Minasyan Armenian Agricultural Academy, Yerevan, Armenia. He teaches about equipment for food production enterprise to university level students. He has previously supervised construction of meat products buildings and has worked in the capacity of conditioning equipment for food quality and safety.

This training is intended to introduce new technologies to improve the agricultural base and produce new and alternative meat products for Armenia. The U. S. benefits from this training by gaining access to Armenia's growing market for consumer oriented high value product.

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