Many Albanian “Made in Albania” products have increased tenfold in recent years, thanks to the development of domestic companies that have become a national pride, because of family dedication, but also government support schemes for entrepreneurship, agriculture, and agro-processing. This combination of private initiative with supportive policies has produced concrete success stories in the Albanian economy, one of which is the dried fruit production company “Alegria” in Gjirokastër.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, who visited Gjirokastër today, was at the “Alegria” company, where he became closely acquainted with the latest investments, new technology, and traditional agro-processed products that are now exported to international markets such as the USA, Canada, England, and Belgium.
Minister of Education Mirela Kumbaro, who accompanied the Prime Minister during this visit, assessed the company’s transformation as an inspiring success story:
“This company is called ‘Alegria’ and what you see here is in fact the newest construction. It started with something very small and today it has taken over the market with traditional products that they agro-process and with dried fruits which, with the new technologies they have introduced, have also supplied the entire Albanian hospitality equipment sector with small packaging that today is highly demanded. Tourism, on one hand, created for the boys a new opportunity for investment and to expand their offer, so they also made new technological purchases and innovation. And I am very pleased that only one year ago this was not here when we were together, but you know the story better. Kumbaro explained.
For his part, the owner of the company stressed that the rapid growth of recent years would not have been possible without institutional support and strategic investments: “Thanks to your support, it really became possible for us to build it, because naturally the steps we have taken in the last three years for us as a company were very big and we needed expansion. In the last three years we have introduced two innovations. One is a unique packaging format that does not exist in the regional market, called ‘canpet’, where we pack dried fruits in plastic jars with easy open, and we are the only ones in the entire Balkan region, this type of packaging format does not exist. And most recently, last year, we made an investment in a production line of caramelized popcorn, which again for the Albanian market, no one has. We have started its production for six months and expectations from the market are very good, but the base is always here, in traditional products. We produce jufka, we produce petka, we produce rroshnicat, we produce trahana. That there is the fully automatic production line of popcorn, while here we have a semi-automatic packaging line in canpet. This is local hazelnut, it is from Gjirokastër, from the villages opposite. This belongs to our farmers,” explained the company’s manager regarding some products.
The company counts over 4,000 clients throughout the country and is widely present in the hospitality sector, while its products, including local hazelnuts and traditional dried figs, are increasingly gaining ground in international markets.
The success of “Alegria” is a clear testimony of how tradition, innovation, and the right support can intertwine to create competitive products in the global market, turning “Made in Albania” into an increasingly demanded and trusted brand.
