Experts suggest four products to develop agriculture

TIRANA, Jan. 31 – German experts suggest the Albanian underdeveloped agricultural sector could get a boost only if investments are oriented toward vegetable, fruit, meat and milk production. The proposal is made by Reinhard Hanke, an expert who has assisted the Albanian agriculture ministry in capacity building for implementing the rural development strategy under an EU project implemented by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), who spoke to Deutsche Welle in the Albanian service after a forum held in Berlin on the opportunities of investing in agriculture in SEE Europe.
“I think the field with the biggest impact in Albania are vegetables, fruit, meat and milk. Investment promotion programmes should be oriented in these sectors as the most attractive fields where investments can be made in the Albanian agriculture,” said Hanke, adding that other unexplored fields of the market can be covered.
However, he says that investments in production should also be followed by necessary infrastructure to process the four key products of Albanian agriculture.
It is difficult to offer a product at the quantity and quality required by the EU in Albania considering the small structures, enterprises, workforce and areas available, says Hanke.
Despite the significant increase of up to 40 percent compared to the revised 2010 budget,
this important sector to the Albanian economy will continue being the least government-funded among the other four priority sectors of education, health, defence, and transport.
Government expects the GDP on this vital sector of the Albanian economy to climb to 0.63 percent of the GDP only by 2013.
The agriculture sector, employing the majority of people in rural areas where all people are considered self-employed because of possessing land, continues to be one of the main sectors of the economy, generating about 18.5% of GDP (in 2008) and 48.3% of total employment. Around 500,000 people work in agriculture, of whom 55% full time and 45% part time. Labour productivity in agriculture is only 30% of labour productivity in the rest of the Albanian economy and 20% of the EU. More than 50% of the total Albanian population lives in the rural areas where agriculture is the main economic activity.
The 2011 budget on agriculture, which minister Genc Ruli says is biggest ever during the past 6 years at 79 million dollars, will focus on measures to prevent flooding in the northern Shkodra region following last year’s bad experience when several areas of the country’s biggest northern region were inundated five consecutive times during the year.