Farmers boost production by using greenhouses

During all over the past year, the Ministry of Agriculture took several incentives and gave grants to farmers in order to increase cultivation of vegetables by using greenhouses, as an easy and low-cost way to produce bio products. Experts noticed that during 2014, production by using greenhouses turned into the main way of vegetables production in Albania.

Enver Ferizaj, representative of Albanian Agribusiness Council declared that farmers from year to year have increased their greenhouses’ surfaces for producing vegetables, since this is seen as a very profitable way of producing. This has affected in the increase of exports, says Ferizaj.   The Albanian government gave a very big importance to the development of agriculture sector, by giving subventions and grants of 1 ml ALL for every hectare of greenhouses.

“This initiative encouraged farmers to increase the greenhouses’ surfaces in order to fulfill the domestic demand for vegetables and to export them in the European market. Based on Ministry of Agriculture statistics, currently in our country there are more than 1000 hectares of greenhouses, most of them are solar heating greenhouses or greenhouses heated by fuel oil. The produced vegetables by Albanian farmers dominate doubly in the domestic market, compared to imported vegetables, as seen by Ministry of Agriculture official figures.

The increase of domestic production for vegetables as tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and cucumber has affected in the decrease of prices, since their prices in 2014 were 3% lower than in 2013.

News source/photo credits: ATA