Armenia's Ag Minister Visits Fowler Packing

* Minister Tavit Lokian is awed by the efficiencies of modern agricultural technologies
by Paul Chaderjian
Asbarez

(Fowler, California) -- Under the bright and warm September San Joaquin sun, a high-ranking official from the Republic of Armenia examines the color of crimson grapes as migrant farm workers pack plastic containers for Wal-Mart and Costco. Leading him on a tour through endless rows of vineyards are the sons of once-migrant Armenians from the old country, men whose grandfathers and fathers labored relentlessly on these lands for nearly a century, making California's Central Valley the most bountiful farmland in the world and their packing houses the most successful in North America.

Chemist, biologist, urban planner, athlete, the representative of his people and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party in Parliament and now appointed Minister of Agriculture, Tavit Lokian, inspects the table grapes, tastes the fruit and comments on the sweetness of it. Dressed in a black Lacross polo shirt and black pants, he is easy to spot among the migrant works in colorful plaid and paisley shirts. The Minister is the tall balding man with a prominent nose, athletic physique and the regal, experienced face of a diplomat charged with the enormous task of privatizing and modernizing Armenia's farms and making it possible for Armenian farmers to capitalize on their fruits of labor. Lokian, the Minister, asks probing questions as his tour guides, members of the Parnagian Family, share their multi-generational experience on the farm.

"I hope he'll walk away having some sense of the possibilities for Armenia," says Dennis Parnagian. "I hope he can take back a look into the future of what Armenia can be agriculturally. That he'll broaden his horizons and be able to translate what he's seen here and how it might apply in Armenia. That's my hope."

What the Minister sees at the Parnagian's Fowler Packing Company is one of the largest packing operation in the US, a plant that packs and sells 150 million pounds of fruit a year. Under the "SamSonS" brand, the plant markets six million boxes of peaches, nectarines, plumbs, apricots, black grapes, whites grapes, seeded and non-seeded grapes across the United States and exports to Canada, Mexico and to grocery stores as far away as Singapore and Taiwan.

"Sixty percent of the fruit we pack is our own and 40 percent we buy from other growers," says Phillip Parnagian. " I think the Minister will see how growers can collectively come into a facility and everybody bring their product and fruit in here. He'll see how the fruit gets packed and marketed in a unit, where it could be sold nationally. Hopefully, he can take this approach back to Armenia, where he has many, many farmers that can come to a central location and prosper."

The tour, sponsored and organized by the Armenian Cultural Foundation, continues as a caravan of golf carts zig-zags through giant packing houses, which are monitored around the clock by state-of-the art computers and closed circuit television cameras. Inside one of the giant buildings resembling a jetliner hanger, Rich Parnagian explains the function of a million-dollar conveyer belt -- a machine that takes the fuzz off the peaches, washes them and puts a very light coat of a vegetable wax to keep the fruit fresh.

"And then the fruit goes from that washer and waxer onto the grading line, where folks grade the product for defects of any kind, whether it be scars or insect damage or decay," says Parnagian. "They sort that out and let the remaining good fruit continue on in the packing line, every piece of fruit gets weighed and every piece of fruit gets photographed. Then the machine directs that size or grade to different areas for packing.

More than 500 people work on the three conveyer lines at Fowler Packing, and the enormity of the plant leaves the Minister in awe. "This was an incredible facility, and naturally, while observing the plant, I was thinking when in Armenia will we be able to create the first of this kind of a refrigeration and packing plant," says Minister Lokian. "Without this type of equipment, we can't enter the international marketplace no matter how great the fruits and produce we grow. We have to meet the international standards."

After an interview with a KMJ Radio news reporter and a telephone call from the Fresno Bee newspaper to arrange for an interview, the Minister is treated to a Tex-Mex style barbeque with authentic salsa, beans and large portions of beef, chicken and sausage -- all grilled specially for the Minister by Fowler Packing laborers.

Lokian is introduced to the youngest generation of the Parnagian Family, whom he invites to Armenia for a month. The Minister asking another Parnagian son, a tanned young man with a powerlifter's physique, if he plays football. After more small talk, the golf cart tour continues with a stop at huge cavernous cooling chambers that are 25 feet tall and 30 feet wide.

"We are showing the Minister how we pre-cool the fruit when it comes from the field," says Rich Parnagian. "There is a sucking fan, and we put the tarps over the boxes and drape them, and we turn the suction fan on, and it sucks the cold air through the pallets. From the computer room, we watch the air come down from 90 down to 33 degrees in a matter of three hours."

The Minister, a trained chemist and biologist, asks about the sulfur-dioxide sign posted outside the cooling chamber. "Occasionally, there will be a crack between the fruit and the vine or a crack in the skin," says Parnagian, "and bacteria can grow there and it can speed up the rotting process. The sulfur dioxide gas will kill the bacteria and increase the shelf life of the fruit."

Accompanying the Minister are several members of the Armenian Technology Group (ATG), a Fresno-based organization that actively provides technology and agricultural supplies and training to farmers in Armenia. By bringing the Minister to Fowler Packing, the ATG hopes to show the Armenian diplomat how adapting modern technology can benefit farmers in Armenia.

"Armenian farmers lose up to 50 percent of their crop in the process of storage and transportation," says Nubar Tashjian, an ATG board member. "The Minister recognizes the need for modern technology and he is open to it," says Tashjian. "He will listen. He wants to know and learn himself. He is a very intelligent man."

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