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Agricultural production risks entering a crisis

2023-08-26 22:52:00, Aktualitet CNA

Agricultural production is entering a cycle of crisis that is being created by the lack of labor in the countryside, the high costs of inputs, while exporters are going bankrupt from the fall in the value of the Euro. Farmers increased their incomes this season from the higher prices offered by the foreign and domestic markets in conditions of lack of production. Support for rural development was only 3.5 million euros in January-April 2023. Meanwhile, the EU announced the suspension of funds from the IPARD program, due to corruption. Farmers are suffering from input price abuses and climate risks and are only using the geographical advantage that ensures production with two or three seasons in Fier, Lushnja and Berat.

Farmers are selling their produce from greenhouses and fields at higher prices this year. The wet and rainy spring has severely damaged the production in the region, which has increased the demand for Albanian products, and consequently, the prices.

Farmers warn that the prices of agricultural and livestock products will remain high due to the lack of labor in the countryside, which is reducing the planted areas and affecting the production, while the demand is increasing.

In the beginning, the war in Ukraine and now the climate impacts have been in favor of the season for Albanian farmers, but this positive progress cannot be a year-round trend, since this year fruit producers, especially vineyards and apples, have been massively damaged by the wet spring.

The exporters claimed that they are on the verge of the unaffordability of the activity, due to the fall of the euro. "The rapid fall of the Euro at the peak of the season of agricultural exports is leading us to bankruptcy," said Laurat Mulliqi from the Association of Exporters of Agricultural Products and at the same time administrator of one of the largest export companies "Tomato Al".

On the other hand, the permanent problems with the high costs of inputs, the lack of subsidies and recently with the suspension of funding from the IPARD program in the EU are keeping the largest sector of the country's economy under the hoof of primitivism and far from the standards of the time.

Çmimet e shitjes me shumicë për domaten, kastravecin, bostanin, qepën dhe pataten janë dyfishi i vitit të kaluar. Kjo erdhi nga rritja e kërkesës nga jashtë dhe nga brenda prej numrit më të lartë të turistëve në një kohë që prodhimi nuk ka rritje të dukshme.

Sipas të dhënave të INSTAT, në 6-mujorin e parë të vitit, eksportet bujqësore në vlerë ishin 21% më të larta se e njëjta periudhë e vitit të kaluar, por rritja në sasi ishte vetëm 4.7%.

Kjo ecuri tregon se rritja u udhëhoq më shumë nga çmimet se sa prodhimi. (shiko grafikët për ecurinë e eksporteve në vlerë dhe sasi).

Ilir Pilku, an expert in agriculture, said that the agricultural policies in Albania should be reviewed for a clearer assessment regarding the suitability of the climatic conditions, the composition of the agricultural land, the agrotechnics required on the one hand and the world trade trend, so related with the demand for products in a medium-long term period.

According to him, the agricultural activities with the highest return on investment are vegetable production in greenhouses, mainly tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and strawberries, field vegetables that include the group of cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and watermelon, followed by citrus fruits represented by tangerines ./Monitor magazine