Meeting of agriculture experts in Lezha

LEZHA, Nov. 17 – The 82th national meeting of the Albanian agriculture experts was held Friday in the north-western town of Lezha. Minister Jemin Gjana said that this year agriculture has had a 2-17 percent growth. The minister said however that the orientation of the products to the import has created a great shortcoming in the daily development. As an example he said that some 500 hectares of agriculture land was needed to plant them with potatoes but they could not be found. He criticized that the politics was not giving guideline to the farmers. The minister said that crating the appropriate and required standards needed a lot of work. In March 2006, eight fish units were closed for not fulfilling the standards. Three of them made the necessary investment and resumed production in three months. The minister said the government had created a $5 million fund to support agriculture. That would be used only for vineyards and fruit trees though the request could be for $25 million, he said.