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We complain about oil, but the tomato crisis has arrived, it exceeds 400 lek/kg!

2026-04-03 07:18:36, Ekonomi CNA

Tomatoes are the most popular product in our country, the most cultivated in greenhouses and family gardens and used in housewives' recipes, but these days their price in retail markets has hit records of 350-440 lek per kg for normal tomatoes and 700-800 lek per kg for cherry tomatoes, a value previously unknown to consumers.

Although this vegetable is not in its prime, the second greenhouse season brought this product at reasonable prices to the stalls in early April. Even in January, domestic tomatoes cost 170 lek/kg and imported ones 270-300 lek/kg. Now even the evendit tomato has reached the import.

A combination of factors starting with lower planting areas, the damage caused by floods at the beginning of the year, and high export demand is keeping prices at the ceiling.

Data from the market and the Farmers' Portal show that yesterday a kilogram of wholesale tomatoes at the farm cost 170-270 lek, while at the stalls the tomato has become a "don't touch" product.

The latest data from monitoring wholesale markets in the country by the Farmer's Portal shows that the price of tomatoes has suffered a sharp jump, being traded at values ??exceeding 250 lek per kilogram in some of the main regions such as Tirana, while in Korça the majority reaches up to 300 lek per kilogram.

High prices at collection points are translating into even more burdensome figures for citizens in retail markets, where the price per kilogram has already started at the level of 350 lek, while specific varieties such as cherry tomatoes are reaching record values ??that go up to 800 lek per kilogram.

This upward trend is also confirmed by the historical analysis of INSTAT figures, where the comparison of February months over the years shows that 2026 marks the highest average price level in the last four years, leaving behind the peak recorded in 2023.

Although in cities like Tirana and Fier prices at wholesale outlets start from 170 to 230 lekë for the second categories, the immediate reflection in neighborhood stores and small markets is making tomatoes a very expensive item, at a time when their consumption is an inseparable part of housewives' and restaurants' recipes.

Last year, a kilogram of tomatoes during this period was sold at the farm for 80-100 lek per kg and 150 lek at stalls, but this year prices have more than doubled.

High tomato prices have led to a price crisis for this product across the Mediterranean. Climate change has brought about an instability of temperatures and the floods of February damaged hundreds of thousands of hectares of greenhouses in Italy, Spain, Turkey and Albania, which are the main producers of this product in Europe at the moment.

Specialized export greenhouses in Fier, Lushnja, and Berat were flooded four times from November 2025 to February 2026, completely losing a large part of their production and new nurseries.

Excess water in greenhouses caused rot, leading to the total loss of the first plantings, while high humidity after the floods is favoring the spread of diseases such as downy mildew, which requires additional investments in expensive pesticides, increasing the cost per kilogram on the farm, said Mariglen Ziu, a farmer with experience in cultivating vegetables in greenhouses in Dimal.

Other factors driving the increase are the high costs of agricultural inputs, with chemical fertilizers and pesticides in particular having increased significantly. Also, the lack of labor in rural areas has forced farmers to increase daily wages, a cost that is directly transferred to the final price of the product.

Many farmers, due to losses from the floods, have abandoned their work. The remaining production is being oriented towards export, where high demand from regional and European Union markets makes the remaining production for the domestic market less and more expensive.

In addition, the Albanian government does not provide subsidies to farmers to offset costs, unlike the Mediterranean region which has more protective measures and financial assistance for agriculture.

While other Mediterranean countries face the same climate challenges, they have more advanced drainage and protection systems. Floods and other climatic factors hit Albania harder due to outdated drainage infrastructure, making domestic production more “vulnerable” and prices more volatile compared to its neighbors./Monitor.al