Photo Credit: Paul Cohn   Olives constitute an important sector of Albania’s agricultural economy as hundreds of thousands of households earn their primary or supplemental incomes from this sector. USAID has supported the development of the olive sector for many years—helping farmers and processors become more competitive in domestic and international markets.

USAID Promotes Development of Strategy to Support Albania’s Olive Industry

TIRANA, OCTOBER 6, 2009     Today, USAID’s Albanian Agriculture Competitiveness Program held a workshop to discuss the strategic priorities for growth in Albania’s olive sector. The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection, Mr. Genc Ruli, and USAID/Albania Mission Director, Ms. Roberta Mahoney, delivered remarks at the event.  The purpose of the event was to facilitate the policy dialogue between private and public sector, and give olive producers, processors and traders the opportunity to find and propose solutions to the challenges related to the olive industry.  

“Policy decisions made now will effect the future growth of Albania’s olive sector,” said Mahoney in her remarks at the conference. “It is important to make these strategic decisions based on sound economic analysis that integrates input from farmers, traders and processors.”

USAID’s AAC program and lecturers from the Agricultural University of Tirana delivered presentations regarding the economic importance of the olive sector, the current state of the global olive oil markets, the competitiveness of the Albanian olive industry.  The presentations underscored the global trend towards increasing the efficiency of olive orchards, rather than to expand the area where the crop is grown. The event concluded with presentations from private sector groups that identified and prioritized key issues affecting the competitiveness of olive production and processing.  The proposals of the participants in the event will be presented to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection at the end of the month as the policy recommendations of the private sector.