Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) will soon be home to kiwifruit orchards, presidential candidate Arayik Harutyunyan told an election campaign meeting on Thursday, adding that seedlings for the first 1000 hectares have already been ordered.

Harutyunyan, who previously served as the country’s First Minister, said that the area is one of Artsakh’s “golden valleys”, where people are skilled after decades of cultivation.

“That is why we consider the region an important haven for the introduction of a new irrigation system, the development of horticulture and the production of agricultural products,” Harutyunyan said.