Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks during conversation with local farmers in Polis, Librazhd:

Hello everyone and thank you for your patience! Although weather is not convenient, it is the appropriate time to talk about what we are ready to do today as the government has made available the largest package of financial commitments in joint state budget and European Union funds earmarked to support agriculture, farming and rural development in Albania. The challenge is bigger, but completely possible, not merely because it is our desire, but because, fortunately, Albania offers plenty and countless examples telling us this is completely possible. From Tropoja to Konispol there are meaningful examples of the simple truth: if there is willingness and wisdom, the results will follow.

We have long discussed the necessity of combining and joint forces. Of course, when we say this, many would think it is all about going back to the past and many, who are already used to talk too much accuse us of calling for a revival of the past. The truth is that wherever there is a success across Albania, it has been the outcome of working together. Wherever there is a success in the countryside, it is not a personal or individual success achieved independently without working with others. This does not imply joining the farm land plots, but finding a wise way and joining forces. Everyone can work his own land area he or she owns, but farmers can come together when it comes to deciding what to jointly produce and sell, since if independently, farmers may fall prey to wholesale dealers who buy it very cheap, or refuse to buy it at all. Even worse, we may fall prey to the lack of knowledge by resorting to products that can’t be sold and therefore are left to rot or thrown into river.

The history of European Union and other developed successful countries shows that knowledge, or the know-how comes first when it comes to development of agriculture. Gaining knowledge, being informed on market demand, what is best to produce and what grows best in a certain area and then coming together to sell products so that farmers become the one to regulate control of the prices and not let the others to do so when having farmers scratching their heads because products are not sold and their hard work is go to waste.

It is crucially important to have municipal authorities on your side. We are doing whatever it takes and the municipalities – namely the municipality of Librazhd and the Mayor of Librazhd are an excellent example – since they are on your side by providing information, guiding and supporting you. Do not have any doubts about it. Time will tell, not in five years time, but within the next few months that the responds to the farmers’ applications will be correct. There will be no response due to a party affiliation, there will be no response in exchange of a bribe, but it will be based on the capacity to show the value of an application that meets clear and very transparent criteria. We want farmers to absorb as much as the whole amount made available in state budget and EU funds and turn it into a success story. It is true the European Union provides funding, but there can’t be pennies from heaven. In order to receive and use the money, you should develop a very clear project that provides full arguments to benefit funding.

Applications for agro-tourism has been postponed to another month since there is an ever growing interest and indeed we have been a bit late in time as the new government works on a new program. It was not part of the previous government’s program. Therefore, we have pushed out by another month the deadline so that to provide the application opportunity to anyone who has already built a certain structure and wishes to engage in agro-tourism by building an inn, a small farm for dairy products, or a traditional cuisine available to guests and visitors. Agro-tourism is another component of development, especially in areas where farming and livestock breeding was once developed and lack the land area needed for large-scale and massive agriculture activities and lack access to important markets, but on the other hand is blessed with wonderful nature and is rich in traditions and have potential to welcome visitors.

Unlike the perspective of an outsider, those who are aware of things going on as insiders clearly figures out two realities of the agriculture; a reality of success with people earning money and as such are not poor people and on the contrary are becoming rich, and a poverty reality, with people watching and waiting for things to fall from heaven, if anything will be ever falling. There is no reason for poverty in the countryside if we are organized and work together. But it can’t be done by the government only. The government can’t do your job, but it should perform its duties.

The today’s state is not like the former one that forced people at the gunpoint to turn over their land and join the cooperative, turn over their animals and work as slaves. Today, it takes the free will and strength of your mind and everyone else telling each other that “if working independently things will go from bad to worse, but if we come together we will succeed, make fortune and put an end to poverty for good. That’s why we insist upon this issue. That’s why our program has been developed in a way that it provides incentives and more money to all of those who come and work together, since normally the larger the land area, the larger the production, the more you will earn, the more will benefit Albania and the national economy, because exports would grow.

We want to promote entrepreneurship. Everyone can become an entrepreneur and that’s why we have also changed another very important thing. The joint ventures in agriculture will no longer pay and they will be no longer subject to VAT, as they used to be. They will no longer be forced to fix their turnover below 5 million or under 8 million in order to be excluded from the VAT scheme. On the contrary, joint ventures will not have to pay VAT and will receive more state budget money and direct funding. Work alone and receive nothing, or join others and receive state budget funding for your private business? This is a very clear, very simple choice. It’s not something we have dreamed about, or we have seen it in Germany, Italy, and we are applying it here too. We have seen this right here in Albania. In all parts of Albania you would find realities of joint ventures that are succeeding, exporting their products and earning lots of money, considerable amounts of money for the individuals and households involved in such initiatives. There is no need for philosophy, neither for conferences, but it would be adequate for neighbours to give hands to each other and say now we will come together in this process.

This area features non-state lands intended for hazelnut and cherry orchards. But you practically harvest no crops because it is called an occupied land. The same goes for the rest of the territory. What I’m insisting and working with the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Justice to make available the state-owned lands to entrepreneurs and rent the land for one euro. It would be completely irrational if all these cherry, hazelnut, olive and other trees all over this territory were to be cut down. What we are doing is preparing a form of property, land use – I don’t know exactly to say what  – but we are working to recognize the rights of those who have planted them, they cultivate and live on because, after all, this is what we are seeking to do. Let’s give the free land to an entrepreneur and say, rent it for 1 euro for 90 years and more. Then, as long as these lands are cultivated by certain people, we cannot even leave them on the open without a shelter, saying we have nothing to do with you, that you do not have land, so we cannot give them financial support and these trees that are endless, we cannot cut them down since it would be completely senseless. Those here who are interested in these trees, but such can be found all over Albania, we are trying to find and provide an ultimate solution and grant a 90-year lease to entrepreneurs. By receiving lease documents, you will be eligible for financial support in order to grow more and build collection centres.

Developing collection centres is an easy task. Those who are involved in collecting medicinal herbs should simply come together and address to the Mayor and together prepare a project for a collection centre and become shareholders of the project. The government will provide funding for such projects. The history of the past 20 years has shown that wherever the state has built such centres in the past, they all have failed, because the government cannot finance operations of these centres. These centres should be managed by those who are interested in doing so, those who climb up the mountains and collect the medicinal plants and want to sell them. So, I would like to urge you and all those who are listening or watching us where there is a need for collection centres, no one should expect the government to build them, but work together and knock at the mayor’s door if you need help. If you do not need any help, prepare the project yourself; submit the project to the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency.