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Agriculture holds a significant place in Armenia's economy, employing more than a third of its population. Wine grapes, citrus fruits, wheat, barley, potatoes, and sugar beets are the major food crops; cotton and tobacco are the foremost industrial crops. Armenia has deposits of copper, molybdenum, bauxite, zinc, lead, iron, pyrites, manganese, gold, chromite, and mercury, which provide the basis for a chemical industry. Salts and other minerals have enabled health resorts to thrive. Food processing, nonferrous metallurgy, microelectronics, and the manufacture of electrical equipment, machine tools, textiles, and the famous Armenian brandies and wines are also among the republic's industries. In 1995 the Metzamor nuclear power plant, closed since the 1988 earthquake, was reopened to supply electricity to the energy-starved country. The annual value of Armenia's imports is much greater than that of its exports. The main trading partners are Iran, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Georgia.
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