TIRANA, June 14 /ATA/ – A new initiative was launched Wednesday that seeks to improve the productivity, efficiency and quality focus of Albania’s olive oil industry and exports as the country’s olive oil sector has excellent potential to become stronger, more competitive and profitable.
The initiative will be implemented by the Albanian Agribusiness Council (KASH) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Agricultural Technology and Knowhow Transfer centers, Albanian Olive Oil Association, FED Invest, and through the support by RisiAlbania, an innovative project supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC, and implemented by “Helvetas”.
The initiative seeks to boost the country’s olive oil export, improve productivity and quality through multifaceted support to this important sector.
The new initiative will focus on identification of the of surplus oil producers, production increase and quality improvement, capacity and awareness raising about the best practices in the production and maintaining the quality of olive oil in order to help exporters in accessing high value markets.
The initiative is being launched under the special care of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Frida Krifca, as well as with the understanding of her Italian counterpart Francesco Lolobrigida, as well as with the participation of institutions affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Agricultural Extension Agencies (AREB), technology transfer centres (QTTB), as well as in cooperation with local government bodies.
More than 1258 metric tonnes of olive oil were exported in the first four months of 2023, significantly up from 326 tonnes exported during the same period last year.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that domestic olive oil production rose 13% year-on-year in 2022 to over292,000 metric tonnes.
Increasing olive plantations and production, boosting the producing industry and improving the extraction technology have improved Albania’s score among world olive oil export countries and Made in Albania olive oil is now highly sought in the European market.
Olive growing is a centuries-old tradition, and the value and importance of this production has been intensively supported by the government in recent years.
The government has disbursed 1 million euro in grants under the Sustainable Development of Olive Sector program last year, in a bid to boost support for farmers growing and investing in increasing olive plantations and improving mechanisms and olive oil production capacities.
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