Financial support for farmers through IPARD programme to promote production growth and boost competitiveness is building the basis of a modern and competitive agriculture sector in the country, while food and agricultural imports are constantly decreasing.

Edvis Ziza, thanks to the support from the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (ARDA), has built an agriculture product collection centre that collects locally grown produce from around 400 local agricultural households, ensuring optimum prices for farmers and meeting the demand of the domestic market for fresh vegetables and fruits at any season. The company “Kamila Fruit” in the town of Fushe-Kruje plans to launch a new investment through ARDA support. “The investment project includes total construction of this space, the increase of refrigeration and storage capacities, as well as apple processing. About 80% of the investment has completed. The collection centre has a collection capacity of around 1200 metric tonnes of apples per year, which is stored in a space that meets EU standards in terms of hygiene, but also to extend the shelf life of the product in a centralized atmosphere of air,” ARDA Director Frida Krifca said.

According to Ziza, the collection centre collects apples from farmers all over Albania, from Peshkopia to Ersekë and Devoll, including in this work chain more than 400 farmers and each farmer employs 3-4 people, plus other workers others during the harvest season.

An important investment, which – the Prime Minister underlined – “makes fruits available regardless of the season.” “Our help is important, but our help happens when there are people like you,” the Prime Minister said. “Thank God and thank people like you, thanks to the desire and readiness the number of those who understand that they not only can you work in Albania, but when you have ideas, when you have the will, when you have passion and patience, you can do wonders is constantly increasing.”

Thanks to the tireless work of the people who earn their living through agriculture, their ideas and thanks to the support programs, the current export-import ratio is 1 to three, down from the previous 1 to 7 export-import ratio.