Albanian agricultural products are increasingly gaining access to the European markets thanks to improvement of quality as part of agricultural subsidy scheme applied in this sector of economy. Prime Minister Edi Rama visited Besa Agro Invest in the town of Fushë Krujë, one of the biggest fruit-vegetable farms in the country, which is another successful business in agriculture offering high quality production that has contributed to growth of agricultural exports.

Besa Agro Invest owns approximately 84 hectares of agricultural land in total, including 6 ha of greenhouse and 30 ha of orchards. The company has recently benefited from the Rural Development Program under the Global GAP Implementation and Certification a sprinkler irrigation system as well as construction of a new greenhouse spanning 1 ha.

“The company has benefited assistance not only in construction of the greenhouse from scratch, but also with Global G.A.P. Certification, as well as with installation of irrigation system on the fruit farm. Global Certification G.A.P. has provided the farm with the opportunity to export its produce abroad,” the Head of the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (ARDA) Frida Krifca said.

Thanks to the G.A.P. certification, the locally-grown produce in this farm are increasingly being exported not only to the countries in the region, including Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, but also to European countries, like Italy, Sweden, etc.

“Through Global G.A.P. certification we have enabled our recognition in the foreign market, we have had a great performance and in turn products of this farm have been on high demand in the first season. We are about to conclude a new export contract with Italy thanks to the added value associated with this certification, “according to the administrator.

Relying on advanced technology has improved the quality and quantity of our production.

“The farm owns sufficient land area to apply advanced production technology by employing the special tools and techniques that help production processes to modernize, increase food safety and develop a three-stage production cycle, respectively in spring, summer and autumn,” the chief agronomist said.

Thanks to recent investments supported by national subsidy scheme, this company has increased the number of employees which will continue to grow with the slated expansion of our business.

“We currently number 77 employees. Last month we applied with the labor office asking for 15 more employees. According to our plan, we foresee to increase the surface area by 1 to 11 ha each year,” the administrator says.

Fushë Krujë – another example of growing from a household small business to a big business operator thanks to the government support through financial assistance in making investments designed to boost quality and production capacities. The government continues to encourage small entrepreneurs in the country’s rural areas to invest in meeting European standards and increase production.