TIRANA, March 9 – Albania’s exports of medicinal plants, the country’s second largest agricultural exports after canned fish, registered a slight decline in 2016, ending their six-year upward trend that more than doubled their exports in the past decade.
Exports of “oil seeds, industrial and medicinal plants and straw,” within which medicinal plants account for the overwhelming majority, slightly fell to 14,061 metric tons worth about 4 billion lek (€29 mln) in 2016, down from a record high of 14,453 tonnes worth about 4.1 billion lek (€30 mln) in 2015, dropping by an annual 3 percent, according to state statistical institute, INSTAT.
The decline comes as farmers have shifted to cultivating some imported seeds, not much favoured by buyers in the U.S. and Germany, the top destinations for the country’s medicinal plants.
In communist times, Albania earned about $50 million a year exporting medicinal herbs, and the sector employed roughly 100,000 people. Experts say that if the plants were cultivated instead of being picked wild as they have been so far, the harvest could be increased as much as six fold.
Today, Albania accounts 51 organic operators, 662 hectares under organic cultivation and 330,677 hectares of certified organic wild collection, says the Swiss Cooperation which is assisting Albania develop organic agriculture. 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 lost essential oils tradition
While Albania is rich in medicinal plants, it massively imports all essential oils due to an almost inexistent processing industry during the past 25 years.
Under communism, Albania had several small distillation units including a big plant in Elbasan to produce essential oils operational for about 30 years until the early 1990s when communism and its planned economy collapsed.
“Since the first production date until 1990-1991, the essential oils of sage and white oregano were massively produced. Dozens of tons of these oils were produced at the time, while essential oils of mint, thyme, wild thyme, yarrow, basil etc. were produced at a lower amount,” says the Agroweb agriculture portal.
Agroexport was the only distillatory unit that had the capacity to export dried plants, mostly to the states of former Yugoslavia and Italy. Up until 1970, medicinal and aromatic plants were collected by collection enterprises and former agricultural cooperatives, but even households.
Experts say this tradition which obviously was quite profitable to Albania, seems to have vanished. Collection and exports of medicinal plants is still ongoing but there are shortcomings in the sector of essential oils.
“Demand in the international market for these oils is high. This makes the processing of these plants not only a lucrative business but also a great opportunity for exports. Above all, this is a tradition that must be reinstated for the benefit of the country and its consumers,” says Agroweb, noting that Albania exported 224,540 tons of dried plants and essential oils in 1988, earning about $71 mln.
Agriculture is a key sector in the Albanian economy, employing about half of the country’s GDP but producing only about 20 percent of the GDP, unveiling its low productivity which is hampered by fragmentation of farm land into small plots and poor financing and technology employed.
