Remarks on Competitiveness of Albanian Olive Oil

Remarks of Acting USAID/Albania Mission Director, John Brannaman
National Olive Oil Competition Award Ceremony
May 8, 2009

Honorable Minister Gjana, Distinguished guests and participants,

It is a pleasure to be here this evening to take part in the 5th Annual Olive Oil Competition Awards Ceremony.

Tonight’s event is celebration of Albanian entrepreneurship, a celebration of high-quality Albanian products, and a celebration of a long history of collaboration and partnership with Albanian producers, the Albanian Olive Oil Association, and the many important actors that support Albania’s growing olive oil industry.

For the fifth consecutive year, Albania is honoring its best olive oil producers. With 28 participating businesses in this year’s competition, we are seeing an increased awareness and appreciation for quality that reflects tremendous work on the part of Albanian farmers, processors, and consumers.

This awareness is at the heart of creating a viable, efficient value chain that will support growth of small and medium enterprises, create jobs, and reduce poverty in Albania.

For many years, USAID has supported the olive oil industry.

We’ve helped olive processors gain knowledge to produce organically certified oil in compliance with international quality and food-safety standards.

We’ve facilitated export sales of Albania olive oil to several international markets such as Croatia, Switzerland, and Malaysia.

And, USAID has supported international and national competitions such as this one where the quality of the Albania olive oil has been proven by winning several internationally prestigious prizes.

While Albanians can take pride in these tremendous accomplishments, increased supply of quality olive oil in the international markets poses important challenges for olive producers and processors.

There is need to produce more per unit of land area, but especially to improve quality of raw materials and processed oil, while also adopting innovative approaches to address market niches and be competitive in international markets.

USAID will help you meet these challenges.

Through USAID’s Albanian Agriculture Competitiveness program, we will be helping olive oil producers to identify and penetrate high-value markets.

We will work with farmers to increase productivity, improve quality of raw materials, and establish producer networks to help ensure the integrity of the oil, and USAID will promote advanced olive production systems in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection.

To touch on the last point, the panel of judges in this year’s competition has undergone three years of training with international tasting experts through several USAID programs.

Not only do we want to acknowledge their contributions, but also their talents which will undoubtedly be utilized by the Ministry of Agriculture to help establish Albania’s functional links with the International Olive Oil Council.

The United States Government is pleased of the progress achieved by this industry and will continue supporting agribusiness entrepreneurs to expand their domestic and international trade and contribute to economic development.

To the participants we wish success and a brighter future for your families, businesses.

Urime!