EIRP Proceedings, Vol 12 (2017)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a clear overview of the competitiveness of the commodity chains of the Albanian agriculture and identify the main difficulties that farmers and smallholders are facing, in order to access local and regional agricultural markets. Addressing weak points along the agro-food chain, and increasing the competitiveness of the agricultural chains by improving support services at producer level, linking them with competitive agricultural markets is very important for the economic growth of rural areas, as Albania aspires to enter EU in the upcoming years. In order to identify the main problems that farmers and small holders are being faced with, when their products access agricultural markets, we conducted a survey that consisted on questionnaires distributed to farmers. Based on the statistical analysis resulted that the main barriers that affect the access of agricultural products on the market were: low selling prices, lack of transportation facilities, lack of contractual trade agreements and lack of modern technology. This study also addresses to a greater extent different steps that should be followed in order to improve agriculture policies, and to achieve a sustainable agriculture model, so that the Albanian agricultural products can compete with those of the region and EU.