Can Albania be the grain center in the Balkans? - Rrapaj: We compete in the EU with advantages and if we invest in digitalization
Albanian agriculture can be competitive in the European market only if it develops in line with EU requirements and standards, promoting cooperation and massive investment in digitalization.
In an interview with SCAN TV, the Head of the Albanian Agribusiness Council, Agim Rrapaj, emphasizes that the sector can become competitive by taking advantage of the advantages it has in certain segments, taking as an example the advanced grain processing industry in the country.
"It is not necessary for us to prolong the time until we reach the peaks that technology has reached today in the field of agriculture. I am taking, for example, to understand this, I am taking greenhouses. We have greenhouses that produce 800 to 1000 quintals per hectare, but today there are greenhouses that produce 3000 quintals per hectare. So why don't we build greenhouses of 3000 quintals per hectare, but continue to build greenhouses of 800 to 1000 quintals per hectare? In this prism, I say that we must invest, work and develop those indicators that are in line with those of the European Union. I am taking the other element. We have today the grain processing industry. We have a grain processing industry of the latest technology, with capacities that we can export to the Balkans. We can export even further. So we can process grains with the technologies that we have to take them further, but we need to "to help them, to consolidate them in order to establish a balance between import and export. So where we have the opportunity to export and have the technology, we support them so that they become competitive and fight with the market in the foreign market, where we do not have the opportunity, we apply a different principle."
According to Rrapaj, Albania will have several years after integration to achieve the indicators required by the European Union, but the main thing is increased productivity and access to financing.
"We always talk about difficulties, but the European Union doesn't know who we are, who will let us in and accept us? Of course it does. And of course they have also set a principle regarding this issue, which is the principle of flexibility. Which means that many of the indicators that they have achieved in time, it took them years and years, and I am especially talking here about food safety and product quality. Of course we have to achieve, to achieve those indicators that they have achieved for many years, of course they leave us a certain time, 5 years or 10 years after we enter the European Union. So, when we have solved the problem of financing low productivity, because this is the problem that we want to solve today. Let's tell the Europeans, let's tell the financial institutions, let's tell the state budget that we have low productivity not only because of management, not only because of subjective reasons, but also because of objective reasons that need to be supported with financing, grants in the first place. "First, but also with other financing with facilitating conditions that we need to move from low productivity to high productivity."
Agriculture accounts for approximately 20% of Albania's Gross Domestic Product, but emigration, land fragmentation, and lack of investment have resulted in low productivity and production yield.
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