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Interview: Albanian agriculture changes into engine of economic growth: minister

Xinhua, October 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

The agricultural sector has turned into the engine of Albania's economic growth, Albanian minister of agriculture, rural development and waters administration, Edmond Panariti, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

According to Panariti, Albanian agriculture is now market-oriented. He stressed that during 2016, this sector had witnessed an enormous growth in exports.

The overall contribution of the agriculture sector to country's economy growth has jumped from 18 percent in 2013 to 20 percent, the minister said, referring to the recent reports of the Albanian Institute of Statistics.

Panariti also praised the fact that the surface area of greenhouses in Albania had almost tripled during the last three years that he had been in the top position at the agriculture ministry. This would enable Albania to produce more, having two or three production cycles, he said.

He also said the Albanian ministry of agriculture was also planning to open the commodity market, which would aim to meet the demands of the developing agricultural sector and would regulate retail and wholesale prices and exports.

In Panariti's view, Albania has made great progress in the field of agriculture. However, he said that compared to other countries in the region, Albania continues to provide low financial support for this important sector.

The funds given by the Albanian government as subsidies for farmers -- state funds for agriculture, are 50 million euros (54 million U.S dollars), a figure that lags behind compare with its neighbors -- are insufficient to meet farmers needs.

To reslove this, the Albanian agriculture ministry will tap new possibilities and help Albanian farmers with the guarantee funds which aim to boost second-tier banks crediting of farmers.

Since banks in Albania see the agriculture sector as one with high risks, in order to encourage the banking system to give loans to farmers, the agriculture ministry has decided to apply a new mechanism based on guarantee funds amounting to 65 million euros, the minister explained. The guarantee fund will serve as a guarantee for the loans taken by farmers.

As well, the ministry aims to assist Albanian small and medium-sized enterprises in preparing better business plans in order to get more funds.

The minister also talked about the funds that Albanian farmers can get from the European Union under the IPARD-Like funding schemes, highlighting that he had requested the EU delegation to Tirana to be more flexible and ease the criteria for benefit funds, thus giving more chances to Albanian farmers. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollars) Endit