TIRANA, Dec. 16 – In 2006 there were just around 100 hectares of citrus planted in the Konispol region, in southernmost Albania just off the UNESCO World Heritage site of Butrint. Today, there are more than 724 hectares, which account for 12,000 metric tons of mandarins. Since only 50 percent of trees are currently producing, production levels in the coming years could double, say USAID representatives who have been working with growers and the community since 2007 to revitalize citrus production after the collapse of the industry in the 1990s. Currently, USAID support is focused on improving yield, quality, and safety through training and assistance to growers, as well as improving market infrastructure and linkages.
The Mursi village of the Konispol municipality was the host of the Mandarin Festival for the fourth year in a row, in a celebration to promote Albanian citrus production, coinciding with the citrus harvest and the culmination of a year of effort by citrus growers in southern Albania. This region has significant citrus production which is mainly exported to Kosovo, but also Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Serbia.
Dhimo Kote, a former head of the Xarre commune and a citrus entrepreneur, says the cooperative citrus farms, initially notorious because of the legacy of the communist regime, have helped increase production and it is important for the cultivators to stay united as a strong community.
“It is time to rally together in order to better benefit from our own experiences and to speak with the same voice in order to grow our sales and keep investing in more orchards. For the moment let’s enjoy the fruit of our hard labor,” Kote says.
“We are the main supplier not only in the domestic market, but also to export. People are very interested because of providing a solution to market supply and employing themselves,” he adds.
The entrepreneur says the mandarin yield has been very good this year, but there are challenges with new trees to come in production and new spaces to cultivate.
Since the first commercial cooperative was established in 1995 in Xarra, the number of farmers who have joined forces to work together has increased from 7 to 350. The cooperative employs about 400 people, 250 of whom from outside the local area.
Shuaip Beqiri, the mayor of the new Konispol municipality, says that together with USAID they are working on new varieties so that they eliminate the one-month production boom.
The only commercial citrus production in Albania is mandarin production in Saranda district, in particular in the area around Xarre, Mursi, and Konispol at the Albanian-Greek border.
Citrus orchards grew strongly in communist post-war Albania (1944-1991), from a national total of less than 100,000 trees to more than 1 million by 1990.
The land reform law of 1991 initiated a privatization process that turned these large state and cooperative citrus farms, an estimated 3,000ha, into thousands of small plots that were part of multi-plot, privately-owned farms of on average 1.2 ha. Most of these farms became essentially unspecialized agricultural family units producing a wide range of crops for household consumption.
The citrus sub-sector reached a low point in terms of size and performance in 1998, right after the 1997 financial collapse of the country.
Between 1998 and 2008, driven by new plantings and improved practices, aggregated citrus output nearly quadrupled to around 8,400 metric tons, or 85 percent of the 1990 volume, according to government statistics.
Some of the new production has come from a new group of emerging farmers in the Saranda district who have taken on mandarin production on a commercial basis and already represent 20 percent of national citrus production, and nearly 100 percent of the commercial citrus production.
These emerging commercial farmers in Saranda District provide the seedling from which the revival of Albania’s citrus sub-sector can be grown. This growth would be fueled by good profit margins and vast market potential. A preliminary profitability analysis has indicated that at competitive farm-gate prices, gross margins of 40-60 percent can be achieved in mandarin production in Albania. Market growth opportunities exist in both the domestic and export market. With the right value chain strategies and commitment from all stakeholders in the sub-sector, this growth potential can be realized, says USAID in a study.
