An Armenian poultry will have to pay a five million dram (AMD) penalty for ignoring a ruling of the State Commission for Protection of Economic Cooperation (SCPEC) to stop production of unmarked eggs, it has emerged.

Accroding to the ARKA news agency, Armenia's anti-trust body said today it has decided to impose a fresh penalty on the poultry for ignoring its previous decision to stop production of unmarked eggs and recall all such eggs from shops.

The Lusakert poultry had been fined by SCPEC in July in the amount of AMD500,000 for shipping unmarked eggs to shops. The SCPEC said today the poultry will be fined again for failing to implement its decision and ignoring the demand to recall all unmarked eggs within 20 days and report the fulfillment of the demand to SCPEC within 10 days.

Artak Shaboyan, head of the Commission, said today a monitoring in six supermarkets in the capital city revealed that out of six egg companies that had been fined in July for production of unmarked eggs, only Lusakert continued to sell such eggs.

Manas Yepremian, the acting chief manger of the poultry, said the company will challenge the ruling, except for the penalty imposed for its failure to report the fulfillment of the ruling to SCPEC within 10 days. He said the poultry has corrected the mistake and is producing now only marked eggs.

"We will challenge the ruling and fight for our rights," he said.