TIRANA, Feb. 22 – Cultivating imported seeds instead of indigenous varieties has turned into the key threat facing Albania’s medicinal and aromatic plant industry, a sector that produces Albania’s second largest agricultural exports and involves about 100,000 rural households.
Lower demand for Albanian sage, the flagship product of the local medicinal and aromatic plant industry, which is overwhelmingly exported to the U.S. and meets 70 percent of American market needs, is the main reason behind the decline in exports for a second year in a row following an upward trend ending in 2015 that more than doubled the value of their exports in a decade.
Albania’s exports of medicinal plants hit a five-year low in 2017, with experts blaming the situation on the cultivation of imported sage such as Dutch, Polish and even Chinese varieties.
“Because of high external demand, there has been rampant cultivation of foreign sage including Dutch, Polish and even Chinese one. Fans of ‘Albanian sage tea’ have noticed this change and sage cultivators often fail to sell their production stock,” says the Agroweb portal dedicated to Albanian agriculture developments.
Farmers complain of difficulties in getting the 20 percent VAT refunds and poor storage infrastructure and drying technology.
In a bid to preserve the authentic “Made in Albania” trademark, they demand a stop to excess use of pesticides, promoting the cultivation of other plants such as oregano, rosemary and thyme, imposing a ban on the cultivation of non-authentic seeds and opening up to Russia, China and Singapore as new potential markets.
Local farmers and pickers sell 1 kg of sage at less than $4 at a time when 20 grams of Albanian sage at U.S. supermarket chains is sold for $5.2.
Exports of “oil seeds, industrial and medicinal plants and straw,” within which medicinal plants account for the overwhelming majority, slightly fell to 12,888 metric tons worth about 3.5 billion lek (€26.6 mln) in 2017, down from a record high of 14,453 tonnes worth about 4.1 billion lek (€31 mln) in 2015, according to state statistical institute, INSTAT.
Exports of medicinal plants are Albania’s second largest agriculture exports after canned fish.
The decline in medicinal plant cultivation during the past couple of years is also partly dedicated to a sharp increase in illegal cannabis cultivation in 2016 with government officials publicly calling on farmers to turn to medicinal plants instead of drugs.
“The variety of medicinal and aromatic plants cultivated and collected in Albania is more than 30 and they are all exported. We have a strategy to develop agriculture even in hilly and mountainous areas and it’s exactly the aromatic and medicinal plants that are offered as an alternative to replace the negative phenomenon of narcotic plants such as cannabis,” former Agriculture Minister Edmond Panariti said in mid-2017.
Hundreds of farmers turned to illegal and much more profitable cannabis cultivation in the past couple of years considering the fact that a kilo of cannabis sells at Euro 200 to 300 locally, a huge amount equal to cultivating about 1 metric ton of traditional crops such as wheat or corn.
In communist times, Albania earned about $50 million a year exporting medicinal herbs, and the sector employed roughly 100,000 people. Experts say that if the plants were cultivated instead of being picked wild as they have been so far, the harvest could be increased as much as six fold.
According Essence Producers and Cultivators Association (EPCA) association, Albania has the world’s highest per capita amount of medicinal and aromatic plants, but collects and processes one third of the plants grown in the territory. About 25,000 households nationwide still rely on medicinal plants for a living.
Today, Albania accounts 51 organic operators, 662 hectares under organic cultivation and 330,677 hectares of certified organic wild collection, says the Swiss Cooperation which is assisting Albania develop organic agriculture. More than 90 percent of all the organic certified products are wild collection herbs and medicinal plants. The organic products of wild species, herbs, essential oils, mushrooms, chestnuts, olives and olive oil are exported to EU, North America, Switzerland, South East of Europe and Turkey.
While Albania is rich in medicinal plants, it massively imports all essential oils due to an almost inexistent processing industry during the past 25 years.
