Domestic agricultural production is facing a difficult situation this year, reflected in a sharp decline in exports and a significant increase in imports during the first two months of January-February.
According to official data from INSTAT, vegetable production has suffered severe blows, while imports in quantity have increased by about 23%, reaching 16,157 tons. On the other hand, exports in quantity have drastically fallen by nearly 34%.
The same negative trend is observed in the fruit trade, where the balance remains deeply in deficit. During this period, fruit imports increased by over 21%, surpassing the figure of 18,400 tons. Conversely, the country's export capacity for this category decreased by about 27%, dropping to only 3,039 tons.
This is the first year where agricultural exports in quantity have declined, marking an unprecedented record, while imports have expanded at very high rates.
The main reason for the decline in exports is linked to the major floods in January, which damaged hundreds of greenhouse and open-field cultivation sectors, harming second-season production on the verge of harvest and the first-season nurseries of 2026.
On the other hand, the agricultural sector is increasingly suffering from land abandonment and a lack of labor due to the emigration of young people from rural areas. This is leading to a contraction of cultivated areas and a decrease in total production, causing the country to have no surplus for export and to depend on imports. Additionally, climate change with extreme weather such as floods and droughts is increasingly becoming a cause of production damage.
Agricultural production in the January-February period relies almost entirely on greenhouses. Floods in the areas where these structures were located, such as in the Myzeqe or Shkodra regions, have caused irreparable damage.
For farmers who escaped total flooding, the cost to salvage what remained increased significantly. The need for water pumps, additional pesticides to combat humidity, and greenhouse drying grew. For fruits, prolonged floods particularly damaged citrus fruits harvested during this period.
The strengthening of the domestic currency is making Albanian agricultural products more expensive to purchase for EU countries. At the same time, this makes importing foreign products cheaper for our market, encouraging traders to bring goods from abroad (such as from Greece or Turkey) instead of accumulating domestic production.
Data show that our country's dependence on external food supply has increased sharply this year, exposing us to rising prices from the war crisis.