TIRANA, June 8 – The nationwide campaign against informality is estimated to have formalized some 19,500 farmers in 2015 when a reform in late 2015 obliged farmers to obtain tax ID numbers and pay social security contributions in order to sell their products. The number of registered farmers however represents only 5 percent of more than 442,000 people employed in the private agriculture sector.
The late 2015 reform was met with protests by farmers who were asked to sell their products only to collection networks significantly below market prices. The finance ministry urged farmers to register with tax authorities by obtaining a tax identification which will strip them of tax obligations for an annual turnover of up to 5 million lek (€35,000) and benefit 20 percent VAT refunds. However, the new rules banned farmers to sell their products to consumers on their own if not licensed as a business, sharply reducing their profits considering the limited number of collection units and low competition among them.
Newly adopted measures this year allow farmers to receive cash payments of up to 30,000 lek (€214) eliminating bank procedures for small amounts to facilitate transactions.
Agriculture ministry officials says Albania has a network of 117 collection points which also serve for exports but only two thirds of them are easily accessible.
Agriculture is a key sector for the Albanian economy employing about half of the country’s population but accounting for only 20 percent of the GDP.
Experts say the small size of farms, lack of appropriate management of land and agricultural infrastructure and technology make the Albanian agricultural sector more problematic compared to other countries in the region.
