TIRANA, Oct. 3, 2022 – Albania is importing more fruits and vegetables than it has done in years as local farmers say higher costs and lack of governmental support is making farming a losing proposition and leading to lower local production.
Official data shows that in the January-August 2022 period alone there was a 45.6 percent increase in the import of fruits and vegetables, year over year — a period when local production should have been at its peak and have no problem meeting increased demand from the tourism sector, according to agriculture experts.
Many Albanian farmers complain they are forced to sell their products below cost as foreign products flood the market, originating in locations that have more governmental support through subsidies and other help as well as better management.
It’s not a positive tale of exports for higher quality goods either. Exports of vegetables increased by only 1 percent in the same period, according to INSTAT, Albania’s official state statistics entity.
Many of the imports are seasonal products that could have easily been grown locally.
There have been sporadic farmer protests over recent months, with farmers warning that the trend will continue as domestic producers are lowering the areas they work on due to high costs.
Labor shortages are a major problem as well as a general increase on fertilizer prices, which is related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The production of agricultural goods has had historically low profit margins, but this year’s massive increase in costs of production has forced many farmers to leave their fields and greenhouses unplanted. Fertilizer prices are up 120 to 250 percent compared to last year.
Those increases are then pushed forward to consumers through inflation, which is now at a 20-year high in Albania.
Albania’s agriculture has the lowest government support financially than any of the neighbors, which also contributes to them being less competitive, farmers’ unions note.
The post-pandemic period has not been kind to Albanian agriculture. As the country’s economy in 2021 grew at the highest rates of the last two decades — by over 8.5 percent to make up for the huge shrinking in 2020 — agriculture, the largest sector of the economy, recorded the lowest growth compared to other sectors with only 0.28 percent, according to a report by Monitor magazine. The same situation continued in the first quarter of 2022 with only a 0.1 percent increase.
