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 ACQJ found at the beginning of February 2021. Farmers, who with circumstantial means tried to plant, grow and guarantee the harvest of their products in the greenhouses that they managed as a family. ACQJ he also addressed this region in the month of August, the month during which all the crops were supposed to have already been gathered and sold, and the farmers had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labors throughout the growing season. But the panorama had not changed.
Asked by journalists, the same farmers say that, despite expectations, this year they were also dissatisfied with the subsidies they received from the state. A farmer says that he received only 20.000 lek for greenhouse plastic for one dynam of land, stating that, "If I had known that I would receive so little, I would not have applied at all, because half of the money I have, I have spent on the documentation that was needed to apply".
The greenhouse products, which he sold in the first season, he sold all in 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 municipal agronomists do not visit our greenhouses in the field, to see the products and look for possible problems. Everything is done in the office, with paperwork or nothing at all", he says, while one of his fellow villagers says that this season he did not sell at the export points due to bureaucracy and gimmicks what do with the prices.
Majority points dictate the value of food products
Through the program IPARD, the area of Lushnja has opened some of the largest collection points for agricultural products in Albania. In a post on Facebook 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 they are also supported through the program IPARD. 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 statistics of INSTAT, exports in food, beverages and tobacco, part of which are also agricultural exports, for the first six months of the year totaled 21,359,000,000 ALL, but the real profits of farmers in Lushnja are very limited by the difficulties in increasing production and in determining prices from 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 expect the internal market of Divjaka to overflow, in order to lower the prices", says one of the farmers in Khemishtaj.
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 at the wholesale point 7 quintals of tomatoes for only 7000 Lek, in other words 10 Lek per kilogram". says a farmer. In the retail market, the price was 140-180 lek, a huge difference, from which only collectors and wholesalers profit, according to the farmers themselves.
Asked about the problems that arise for farmers who try to sell their products near the points of collection of agricultural products, Dr. Rezart Prifti, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and co-author of one of more comprehensive publications on the agricultural economy in Albania and the problems encountered by Albanian farmers, states: "It is true that often farmers 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 taken into account that in Albania the optimization of production processes is lacking, as in most cases we have lagged far behind the technology of agricultural products, and as a result we have a product for internal use or export of a very low standard."
He further states that the sale of the product to the wholesaler is a commercial negotiation. "You cannot set the price of the product according to your desire or need, in case you do not follow the instructions of the quality or quantity of the requested product, you do not adhere to the quality conditions of the requested product or you do not adhere to the limit on the use of pesticides in the product. Most agricultural pickers are exporters to some of the largest trading chains, European and further afield. 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 one must look carefully and not always blame the collection points.", he says.
Subsidies, easy to find on paper, but practically unprofitable
By reading the information on the site online of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and ARDA-'s, the information on potential subsidies for farmers, the simple procedures, according to the ministry, are a nightmare for anyone trying to get any funds for the further development of their farm or greenhouses.
"It seems as if these criteria are set so that subsidies from the state are not won by small farmers", says an agricultural expert who is 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, apart from being insufficient, are not even categorized according to the needs of farmers.", says Andrea Muҫo, the expert of Center for the Transfer of Agricultural Technologies, Lushnja.
The procedure of getting a subsidy for farmers is itself a real hell in terms of necessary steps and paperwork. "The initial application is made in the district agriculture offices. Once the application file is complete, you must appear before the Commission for the 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 control and field verification and finally, if you are lucky, then the approval of the file and the authorization of payments are carried out, without talking here about their execution , that who knows when it will be.", – says a farmer.
Another farmer asks: “I have a greenhouse. What do I need the fuel subsidy for? Where do I use it?”
Center for Transfer of Agricultural Technologies is powerless to help the farmers of Lushnja, as half of its powers have been removed. Scientific research has been delegated to the Agricultural University of Tirana. As a consequence of this, the budget and human resources of this institution have been reduced, leaving access only to the experimentation of seeds of different agricultural crops and the development of fairs.
"Farmers' problem, - says Muço, - it 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 of cost and profit. "
From the criteria set for the fuel subsidy, a farmer must have not less than 1 hectare of land and not less than 10 ownership certificates in total. So, a title deed must have no less than 1000 m2 to fulfill the criterion, even though the farmer has this 1 hectare of land, but he has the certificates for less than 1000 m2.
"Over the years, it has been noticed that one of the main problems in subsidizing farmers has been the illegality and failure to translate various schemes into productive or commercial efficiency. The current scheme of the AZHBR, financed also by international partners, scared and by previous experiences, but also pushed by the strict conditions of funding from the EU, has found the only way to overcome these difficulties is the bureaucratic, strict and often incomprehensible and indecipherable even by me, no longer by a simple farmer from Lushnja or Fieri. Beyond the conditions on the amount of land, heads of cattle or documentation, the cost to be included in these financing schemes is often unaffordable for a farmer due to the required documentation and the many steps to follow. At the moment when the cost of providing the service is greater than the grant received, everyone is reluctant to apply, let alone talk about efficiency.", says the Priest.
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 least the state should intervene in setting the price floor and ceiling, so that the farmer has a certainty that his production will not be below cost.", says Muço.
"This policy would protect not only the farmer but also the consumer from price abuse by the majority 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 should the tomato come from abroad, when we throw it here?", says a farmer angrily.
According to the expert, this situation occurs because the state is more favorable towards imported products than domestic production.
The financing of farmers is seen as one of the biggest challenges even for the Priest, who says: "If we want to see effective grant schemes, it is enough to remove the middleman. Eliminate the countless agencies and visit the farmer, see what he needs and finance him directly, without complicated schemes, without countless documents and without unattainable conditions, dictated by a problematic history in the management of small and medium 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, says 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 in the consciousness of Albanians, but what we propose in the report prepared for FES in 2016, is a different term and a different approach: Entrepreneurial farmers' initiative, which is again basically a union of strength among 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.
