TIRANA, April 8 /ATA/ Ekaterina Solovova, resident representative of the EBRD in Albania, said that “one of the strategic priorities of the EBRD in Albania is to increase competition and access to private sector financing.”
In her address to the launch of the Farmer Portal, with the participation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Frida Krifca, the representative of the EBRD recalled “the meeting more than a year ago, with stakeholders from the Albanian government and the rural community which focused on importance of access to finance for the agribusiness sector.”
“The contribution of the agribusiness sectors to the Albanian economy is important. Agribusiness generates employment for almost 50% of the population in rural areas and contributes about 20% of the country’s GDP,” said Solovova, adding that the sector copes with multiple overlapping challenges, such as informality, fragmentation, vulnerability to climate change, lack of standardization and, as a consequence, inadequate access to finance.
The EBRD representative emphasized that the sector remains underserved by financial institutions, where loans for agribusiness account for less than 2% of total lending for the economy.
“Against this backdrop, she continued, the EBRD and the Government of Albania joined forces and in 2016 developed a framework to support the agriculture sector and then the tourism sector through the specially designated institution for the support of Albanian Agribusiness and Tourism (“AATSF” ).”
“The Albanian government committed over 30 million euros in grant financing for the ease of risk sharing, making it possible to extend up to 180 million euros in loans to SMEs operating in agribusiness and tourism from participating commercial banks. At the end of 2022, about 6,230 loans were extended to farmers and agribusinesses in a total amount of nearly 100 million euros. In 2022, the total amount of new loan disbursements under this Facility constituted over 80% of all new loans for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sector from banks in Albania,” Solovova said.
She also informed that EBRD has provided technical assistance to ARDA – as the institution responsible for managing IPARD funds as well as national schemes, in two main areas: for streamlining the application and approval procedures for granting grants to farmers and agribusiness.
Solovova praised the launch of the e-Farmer portal as an easily accessible online repository of all important and necessary information for agribusinesses and farmers.
“It provides knowledge on: funding opportunities and application procedures; services provided to farmers; as well as important market and production -related information – such as daily product prices. This excellent work would not have been possible without the excellent cooperation with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the financing provided by the Swiss SECO,” Solovova said.
