Author: Alfred Zylyftari, Elsa Kotorri
One cold night in February, S., together with his wife, spent in the greenhouse, lighting 500 candles at the roots of the seedlings to maintain the temperature, so that the seedlings would not be damaged and the effort would not go in vain.
They had received the seedlings free of charge, with the promise that they would pay them after selling the production.
Now that the time of sale has come, their fear is at what price they will sell the products. Will they make a profit or a loss this year?
This is one of the stories of farmers in the Lushnja area. What they have in common is the "fear" they have of collection points. Because of this shyness, even those who agree to speak, do not want to be identified.
This was the panorama of countless farms in Lushnja that ACQJ found in early February 2021. Farmers, who with circumstantial means were trying to plant, grow and guarantee the harvest of their products in greenhouses that they managed as a family. ACQJ also addressed this region in August, a month during which all the products were supposed to have already been collected and sold, and farmers had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their hard work throughout the growing season. But, the panorama had not changed.
When asked by journalists, the same farmers said that, despite expectations, they were still dissatisfied with the subsidies they received from the state this year. One farmer said that he received only 20.000 lek for greenhouse plastic for one dunyam of land, saying that, “if I had known that I would receive so little, I would not have applied at all, because I spent half of the money I have on the documentation needed to apply . ”
The greenhouse products he sold in the first season were all sold on the domestic market, but at the price set by the traders. He says that the price of chemical fertilizer has also increased compared to last year. “ Even the municipality’s agronomists don’t visit our greenhouses on the ground to see the products and look for possible problems. Everything is done in the office, with paperwork or not at all ,” he says, while one of his fellow villagers says that this season he hasn’t sold at export points because of the bureaucracy and the tricks they do with prices.
Majority points dictate the value of food products
Through the IPARD program , the Lushnja area has opened some of the largest collection points for agricultural products in Albania. In a Facebook post in June of this year, Prime Minister Rama advertised the achievements in this field, expressing the aspiration for even greater achievements. The collection points for agricultural products, “Doni Fruits”, “Elian” and “Pula Comerc”, in Lushnja are a private initiative, but have also been supported through the IPARD program . According to state sources, these investments have had a high impact on increasing agricultural production in the area, increasing exports and generating income for the residents of this area. According to INSTAT statistics , exports in food, beverages and tobacco, part of which are agricultural exports, for the first six months of the year totaled 21,359,000,000 lekë, but the real profits of farmers in Lushnja are extremely limited by the difficulties in increasing production and in determining prices from the collection points.
When they approach the collection points of the farmers' products, the latter express that they feel powerless against the traders, as they have only two options: either sell their goods at the price set by the trader, or be forced to throw the production in the field. The power of the majority points comes from the monopoly situation. There are few collection points for export in Lushnja.
"They are waiting for the Divjaka domestic market to overflow, so that prices can be reduced ," says one of the farmers in Këmishtaj.
The farmer cannot sell all the production in the domestic market, while the export points take all the production at once, but at the price dictated by the majority points.
"I was forced to sell 7 quintals of tomatoes at the wholesale point for only 7000 lek, or in other words 10 lek per kilogram," says a farmer. In the retail market, the price was 140-180 lek, an extremely large difference, from which only collectors and wholesale traders profit, according to the farmers themselves.
Asked about the problems that arise for farmers who try to sell their products near agricultural product collection points, Dr. Rezart Prifti, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and co-author of one of the most comprehensive publications on agricultural economics in Albania and the problems faced by Albanian farmers, states: “It is true that farmers often do not have the power to dictate the price of the product and this causes problems for them, as long as they are forced to sell it below cost, in order not to throw it in the field, but it should be borne in mind that in Albania there is a lack of optimization of production processes, since in most cases we have lagged far behind in agricultural product technology, and as a result we have a product for internal use or export of an extremely low standard.”
He further emphasizes that selling the product to the wholesaler is a commercial negotiation. “You cannot set the price of the product according to your wishes or needs, if you do not follow the instructions of the quality or quantity of the required product, do not adhere to the quality conditions of the required product or do not adhere to the limit on the use of pesticides in the product. Most collectors of agricultural products are exporters to some of the largest commercial chains, European and beyond. We cannot expect the wholesaler in Albania to accept the product outside the standards and then this product to be accepted by the main customer. Here both parties have their own faults, but we must look carefully and not always blame the collection points,” he says.
Subsidies, easy to find on paper, but practically unprofitable
Reading the information on the online website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and AZHBR , information on potential subsidies for farmers , simple procedures, according to the ministry, are a nightmare for anyone trying to obtain any funds for the further development of their farm or greenhouses.
"It seems like these criteria were set so that state subsidies would not be won by small farmers ," says an agricultural expert familiar with the problem.
Farmers, especially those who have greenhouses and do not use agricultural tools much, suggest the subsidy model that is done in North Macedonia: the subsidy is given based on the amount they produce and not fixed, as is done here.
"The subsidies offered by the state, besides not being sufficient, are not even categorized according to the needs of farmers," says Andrea Muҫo, expert at the Center for Agricultural Technology Transfer , Lushnja.
The procedure for obtaining a subsidy for farmers is a real hell in itself in terms of the steps and paperwork required. “The initial application is made at the district agriculture offices. Once the application file is completed, you have to appear before the Commission for Acceptance and Evaluation of Applications, which checks the file and enters the data into the system. Then follows the evaluation of the application, which is supposed to be done automatically by the system, followed by an administrative check and verification in the field and finally, if you are lucky, then the approval of the file and authorization of payments are carried out, without talking about their execution, which who knows when it will be done.” , – says a farmer.
Another farmer asks: " I have a greenhouse. What do I need the fuel subsidy for? Where do I use it?"
The Center for Agricultural Technology Transfer is powerless to help farmers in Lushnja, after half of its powers were taken away. Scientific research has been delegated to the Agricultural University of Tirana. As a result, the budget and human resources of this institution have been reduced, leaving it only with access to experimenting with seeds of various agricultural crops and holding fairs.
" The problem of farmers ," says Muço, " is not the "wrong" choice of agricultural crops to be cultivated. The problems come later: the inability to sell the production, the lack of subsidies, the disparity between costs and profits ."
From the criteria set for the fuel subsidy, a farmer must have no less than 1 hectare of land and no less than 10 ownership certificates in total. So, a ownership certificate must have no less than 1000 m 2 to meet the criteria, even though the farmer has this 1 hectare of land, but the certificates are for less than 1000 m 2.
"Over the years, it has been noted that one of the main problems in subsidizing farmers has been the illegality and failure to translate various schemes into production or marketing efficiency. The current AZHBR scheme, financed by international partners, frightened by previous experiences, but also pushed by the strict conditions of EU financing, has found the only way to overcome these difficulties to be bureaucratic, strict and often incomprehensible and indecipherable procedures, even by me, let alone a simple farmer from Lushnja or Fier. Beyond the conditions on the amount of land, livestock or documentation, the cost of being included in these financing schemes is often unaffordable for a farmer due to the documentation required and the numerous steps to follow. At the moment when the cost of providing the service is greater than the grant received, everyone hesitates to apply, let alone talk about efficiency,” says Prifti.
Albania is still a step behind in the agricultural sector, both in terms of subsidy policies, as well as in technology and production quality as a result of the lack of recognition of non-native agricultural crops, lack of experience and foreign trade during the communist regime. .
In Lushnja there are also farmers who have been trained and certified abroad, but feel powerless to implement their knowledge because of the chain: production-collection-sale.
" At the very least, the state should intervene in setting floor and ceiling prices, so that farmers have the certainty that their production will not be below cost ," says Muço.
" This policy would protect not only the farmer, but also the consumer from price gouging by mass traders, who buy the commodity at a relatively low price and sell it at a much higher price ."
Small traders also complain about the high prices of agricultural products.
In the minority markets, it is noticed that for certain products, imported ones dominate, while Albanian farmers sell the same products at a low price or are forced to throw them away.
" It's good that the state doesn't help us, but why doesn't it favor us over foreign products? Why do tomatoes have to come from abroad, when we throw them here? ", says angrily a farmer.
According to the expert, this situation occurs because the state is more favorable towards imported products than domestic production.
Financing farmers is seen as one of the biggest challenges for Prifti, who says: "If we want to see effective grant schemes, just remove the middleman. Remove the countless agencies and visit the farmer, see what he needs and finance him directly, without complicated schemes, without countless documentation and without unattainable conditions, dictated by a problematic history in the management of small and medium-sized grants for agriculture."
In the request for information that we sent to the Ministry of Agriculture, we received an answer that the import-export rules are set by the market. We also tried to contact the former Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Edmond Panariti, since the strengthening of collection points became the policy of the Ministry of Agriculture in his time, but we did not receive an answer from him.
Faced with such a situation, farmers do not find support even from trade unions and agricultural organizations, since, according to them, the latter have become one with the most powerful parties (traders).
The only hope of the farmer from Khemishtaj, who saved the seedlings three months ago by lighting candles in the greenhouse, is to sell the production at a price that at least does not result in a loss.
This fear of farmers will disappear if there is a greater control over the majority points and at least a floor price is set.
" At least do what is done in Macedonia ," says one of the farmers.
Economist Prifti, looking at the current situation, states that the main problem observed in Albania is the lack of adaptation to world economies and market demands, and as a result of the failure of farmers to benefit from the application of economies of scale, not only in terms of the economic element, but also in order to become a competitive factor in the market. “The word “cooperative” has a black mark on the consciousness of Albanians, but what we propose in the report prepared for FES in 2016 is a different term and approach: Initiatives of entrepreneurial farmers, which again is essentially a joining of forces between small farmers to adapt to market demands, but with more contemporary elements.”
For now, farmers remained underrepresented, with financial support schemes not suitable for small producers and with a market that they find difficult to adapt to, both in terms of production quality and quantity, leaving it up to of wholesalers the fate of selling their products. Adapting to international standards is not easy, but also the intervention of a command production according to the demands of buyers and the cooperation between farmers to benefit from the concept of economy of scale, are seen as two of the only efficient ways to get out of the hopeless situation, current.
