TIRANA, Feb. 10 – Switzerland has supported the development of organic agriculture in Albania through the local organic certification body of Albinspekt to offer professional inspection and certification services in order to facilitate access of small and medium enterprises to international markets.
“Organic production links Switzerland and Albania. The objective of this Swiss financed trade programme is to reduce poverty of small and medium-sized farmers by promoting trade with certified organic and fair-trade produce and facilitating access to the European and Swiss markets. Albania is exporting annually 50 tons of organic herbs, medicinal and aromatic plants, and olive oil to Switzerland.” said Swiss Ambassador to Albania Christoph Graf at the launch of the project “Consolidation Fund Local Certification” in Tirana as quoted by the Swiss Cooperation office.
Swiss consumers, as in the other European countries, demand a wide variety of organic products with a supply all over the year. “That is an excellent opportunity for Albanian farmers to enter these growing markets with export of fruit and vegetables, berries, chestnuts and mushrooms, taking advantage of Albania’s favourite climate and fertile soils” added Ms Beate Huber, the project leader from the Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).
Global markets for certified organic produce have been growing rapidly over the past two decades and are expected to grow even faster.
“In case of wild collection of medicinal and aromatic plants, we have seen that companies involved in this business generate highly relevant income especially for women, helping them to gain additional income in poor rural areas,” said Albanian Agriculture Minister Edmond Panariti.
Today, Albania accounts 51 organic operators, 662 hectares under organic cultivation and 330,677 hectares certified organic wild collection. More than 90 percent of all the organic certified products are wild collection herbs and medicinal plants. The organic products of wild species, herbs, essential oils, mushrooms, chestnuts, olives and olive oil are exported to EU, North America, Switzerland, South east of Europe and Turkey.
The volume of organic exports from Albania is around 1,000 tonnes of processed products.
Certification is a pre-condition to enter international markets and gain premium prices. This organic trade programme, targeting Albania, Macedonia, Ukraine and India, is financed by the Government of Switzerland through the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) with an amount of around 1.6 million Swiss francs. With the new initiative, running until 2017, the Swiss government is strengthening the competitiveness of the Albanian certification body Albinspekt to help small and medium enterprises getting access to domestic certification services recognized by European markets. The project supports a policy framework conducive to the development of the organic sector and cooperates with the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration in aligning its organic legislation with the European Union regulations.
Switzerland’s contribution to the development of organic agriculture in Albania over the last decade has yielded visible and tangible results in economy, certification and environment.
