TIRANA, March 1 – ‘Made in Albania’ is not enough for Albania’s unique quality products to tap international markets, USAID representatives said this week as they launched the Brand Albania, the umbrella of an authentic quality product.
Undertaken in cooperation with the Albanian government, Brand Albania aims to boost agro-tourism through the promotion of quality authentic Albanian products such as olive oil, mountain tea, medicinal and aromatic plants considered some of Albania’s rarest riches.
“Albanian mountain tea and extra virgin olive oil are almost unrecognized abroad and often sold as non-Albanian brands. The fact is that they are sold in Europe if they carry the brand of another country,” says the Agroweb portal, adding that Albanian quality products are unique in their value, but carry the heavy burden of a bad image and lack of promotion.
Brand Albania will be a real guarantee for Albanian and foreign consumers, granting Albania the real image of a country that provides quality agricultural products and represents a fantastic country of agro tourism worth visiting.
“We are fully aware how important agriculture and its products are in Albania. Branding these high quality products will deliver an attractive and positive image for Albania’s special products. This is a unique project that entwines agriculture and tourism,” USAID Albania Mission Director, Catherine Johnson said at the project’s launch ceremony this week.
Seven public and private institutions will consolidate efforts to successfully implement the Brand Albania project to create a national umbrella brand organization for Albanian authentic agro-food products and integrate them with related tourism initiatives.
A unified national brand will grant the country’s greatest products the title of Albania’s tourism ambassadors, say project representatives.
Agro-tourism is in its initial steps in Albania with several restaurants, wineries, bee and fruit farms offering tourists authentic local products.
In its 2018-2022 draft strategy on the sustainable tourism development, agro-tourism is high on the agenda as one of the tools not only serving tourism promotion and economic development, but also making tourism more sustainable and preserving and promoting the cultural and local identity.
The tourism ministry says it will also prioritize mixing cultural tourism with agro-tourism through a ‘rural renaissance’ program that will restore historic villages such as the Theth mountain tourism destination in northern Albania and the Dhermi and Vuno coastal villages along the southern Albanian Riviera.
Agriculture is a key sector to the Albanian economy, employing about half of the country’s GDP but producing only a fifth of the GDP, unveiling its low productivity which is hampered by the fragmentation of farm land into small plots and poor financing and technology employed.
Korà§a apples and honey, Berat olive oil, Tropoja chestnuts, Saranda mandarins and northern Albanian medicinal plants as well as Fier region vegetables are already renowned products regionally, in addition to the local Raki, a clear liquor usually made from grapes which is the traditional alcoholic drink of Albanians. However, they lack international recognition and certification to penetrate EU markets.
Meanwhile, destinations such as Theth and Valbona in the northern Albanian Alps and sandy and rocky beaches along the Albanian Riviera have gained international recognition in the past few years as tourism gradually grows into a key driver of the Albanian economy.
The branding of Albanian products is also a necessity as Western Balkan countries prepare to adopt measures for an EU-backed regional economic area, a test before their apparent eventual European Union integration that the European Commission says is not going to happen before 2025.
Albanian producers have earlier voiced concern that the EU-backed regional economic area initiative that the six Western Balkan leaders agreed to in mid-2017 at the Trieste Summit will put ‘Made in Albania’ products at a disadvantage unless the Albanian government provides tax and subsidy incentives to make them more competitive regionally.
The Union of Producers has already identified the garment and footwear manufacturing sector producing the country’s top exports, olive oil, water, fish and oil and minerals as Albania’s competitive products which the Albanian government can support to boost their regional competitiveness.
