TIRANA, Nov. 18 – Few months after introducing modern berry cultivation techniques, a Dutch-Albanian joint venture has launched a new packaging facility in the city of Fier which has made it certified to export to the EU.
“Dutchman Leo Rodenrijs set up a raspberry growing farm with support of the government of the Netherlands. Thirteen local farmers now supply raspberries that Superberry Albania packs and ships to shops in Albania and abroad,” says the Dutch embassy in Tirana.
Superberry is now certified to export to the EU and will soon be selling their produce in – amongst other countries – the Netherlands. Experts say Albania has the ideal climate to grow berries, that can be harvested twice a year rather than once, providing for ‘out of season’ raspberries.
Last May, the joint venture introduced modern berry cultivation techniques in Albania such as the cold treatment of plants to postpone harvesting in the area of Divjake, southwestern Albania. The project targets contributing to poverty reduction through creation of economic activity, employment and improved income.
“One of the challenges is to attract enough farmers to get trained and contracted, to get workers insured, the product certification, but also to farmers who will have to cooperate more with each other,” the embassy said.
Instead of going through the whole production chain themselves, this joint venture plans to introduce packaging and distribution for the whole group of farmers. “Working in cooperatives is needed in Albania to scale up production, but given their historic past, people are not really fond of it,” experts say.
Despite some important challenges, the advantage of harvesting twice a year, once outside the common season, access to fertile land and many farmers make it a promising picture for the project to succeed. Interestingly, the project intends to hire mainly women, because they are better pickers.
Strawberry production in Albania began three years ago. Initial yields during the first 2-3 seasons were estimated in the range of 40,000 to 50,000 kg per hectare. The production area is now based upon the Camarosa variety to a large extent and other short-day strawberry varieties including Sabrina, Fortuna, Nabila, Oso Grande, Splendor, and Miranda.
Experts say future growth of the strawberry subsector will increasingly be affected by a successful marketing program which eventually rests on fruit quality and production timing.
AAC Lushnja, the Albanian Agriculture Competitiveness Lushnja, with the support of USAID/Albania, says it is evaluating alternative varieties to enable earlier harvest and shift production toward earlier, more profitable market windows and nutrition systems to improve quality and food safety of strawberries in Kafaraj, Fier.
Lack of organization creates a vulnerable position for farmers in Albania in the value chain, making them an unattractive segment for most banks, a study financed by the Dutch embassy in Tirana has found out.
“Although climate and soils are excellent for farming, targeted agri policies, infrastructure in rural areas, a solid regulatory framework and effective monitoring quality and food safety standards by the government, transparent land ownership systems, access to good quality agri inputs and access to markets, enforceable securities for banks are partly absent or poorly developed in Albania,” the study found.
