PROMOTING COMMERCIAL VALUE CHAINS IN ALBANIA

From December 2020 to December 2022, AFC implemented the “Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)” project in Albania, which was dedicated to support the value chains of orchard fruits, greenhouse vegetables and small ruminants.

What makes this project special is the variety of activities that were carried out in the three different value chains. Throughout the implementation of this first phase of the SRD project, we initiated a number of innovations that stabilise incomes and make agriculture more attractive for young adults in Albania.

Starting with the value chain of orchard fruits, the activities ranged from pre-harvest operations like calcium applications, biological pest control and chemical fruit thinning to improved storage of apples via 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) application, since it strongly resembles the natural ripening hormone ethylene, to be used to block the fruit’s ethylene receptors. For cherries modified atmosphere bags have been introduced. Farmers were also exposed to mobile applications for pest and disease identification as well as the weather-based determination of the best time of treatment.

In the greenhouse value chain, we made biological pest control the central topic of our interventions. With these organic measures, Albanian farmers can lower pesticide residues and maintain access to retail chains in Europe. In the first season of 2022, five greenhouse demonstrations for biological pest control application were established in partnership with AgroBio, a Spanish provider of beneficial organisms. Three demonstrations with sweet pepper brought very good results with no pest infestation and zero pesticide residues after lab analyses. For 2022’s second season, again five greenhouse demonstrations were organised – this time in partnership with Koppert from the Netherlands. As pest infestation is usually higher during the second season, the use of beneficial organisms was combined with mating disruption pheromones to increase effectiveness. To conquer market shares in Europe, it is not enough to reduce residues. The crop usually also requires certification.

For three groups of vegetable producers, we supported the Global-GAP group certification. In addition, we helped to get the country stand at the trade fair Fruit Logistica 2022 in Germany up and running so that Albanian exporters who joined the stand with small individual booths could communicate the strengths of the vegetable industry to international buyers.

In the third value chain of sheep and goat milk, our project team trained 1,086 farmers in critical issues of sheep and goat health as well as milking hygiene. With this knowledge, farmers will be able to improve their milk quality, which cheese factories were trained to determine with the help of suitable field labs. Training and sensitisation for proper milk quality assessment was provided for staff of 14 cheese makers. In addition, we assisted dairy companies to develop concepts for investments in wastewater treatment preventing inappropriate disposal of heavily salted water from the cheese-making process.

To raise consumer awareness for the quality of some outstanding locally made cheese, we helped to organise national cheese tasting events in 2021 and 2023. This format allows for replication from 2023 onwards. The events award prizes for the best cheeses and present the cheese subsector effectively to the Albanian public and in future, hopefully, to international consumers, too.

Cross-cutting topics such as commercial composting tackle high fertiliser prices and provide organic matter to greenhouses. Furthermore, they support establishing a new municipalityowned wholesale market in Tirana showing the diversity and broad spectrum of AFC’s innovative approach.

After two successful years of implementation, the second phase will now focus on working with a limited number of the abovementioned innovations and bring them to scale. Upscaling of piloted innovations will be the theme of the new SRD project phase starting in February 2023 for which AFC received a direct award.

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