|
Albania
Structure and Marketing of Agricultural Output
Before the 1990s, Albania's main food crops were wheat, corn,
fruits, and vegetables . However, planners were devoting increasing
attention to tobacco, olives, and oranges. Between 1989 and 1991,
the country's crop structure underwent a radical transformation.
The new private farmers took responsibility for transporting and
selling their output and began basing their production and marketing
decisions on freemarket conditions. Low state procurement prices,
a shortage of livestock feed, the breakdown of the transportation
system, and a lack of demand from idled processing plants led
to steep declines in the hectarage sown with wheat and such industrial
crops as tobacco, sugar beets, sunflowers, and cotton. Disputes
arising out of the government's land-privatization program, shortages
of funds for seeds and agricultural machinery, and the hasty privatization
of the enterprises that provided farmers with machinery and fertilizers
also had an effect. In the first third of 1991, milk production
was down 50 percent compared to the corresponding period in 1990;
bread-grain production was down 67 percent; and areas sown with
cotton and tobacco had decreased by 80 percent and 50 percent,
respectively.
The farmers' choice of which crops to plant was motivated primarily
by the need to feed their families and only secondarily by the
cash market. In mid-1991, 10 to 15 percent of Albania's cultivable
land lay fallow mainly because the state enterprises were not
giving small farmers seed, fertilizers, and other necessary inputs.
Transportation breakdowns and other problems continued to force
farmers away from crops requiring processing, leaving wheat, sugar,
and vegetable oils in short supply. Production on newly privatized
plots grew, however, despite input shortages. Corn production
increased, and meat, egg, and vegetable output seemed to be on
the rise. Western economists expected agricultural production
to begin recovering in 1992 as the private sector began solving
transportation problems and reorganizing production in response
to demand. Despite these grounds for optimism, domestic production
in 1992 was projected to meet only about 88 percent of the country's
need for meat, 48 percent for wheat, 30 percent for sugar, and
5 percent for vegetable oils. The production shortfalls would
force donor countries to commit additional food aid to avert serious
hunger.
Data as of April 1992
|
