Local production disappears / Where is the goat cheese from the villages of Korçë, or the artisanal yellow cheese from Gjirokastër!?
- Korca Boom
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Today, if you walk into a supermarket in Tirana, Gjirokastër, or Shkodër, it's easier to find “Feta” cheese from Greece, “Pecorino” from Italy, or packaged milk from Serbia than to find artisanal kashkaval from Gjirokastër or goat cheese from the villages of Korçë.
Behind this invisible reality lies a dramatic truth: the Albanian consumer is eating more and more imported food, while locally produced goods from Albanian land and livestock are increasingly disappearing from the shelves. This isn’t a matter of free market choice, but a direct consequence of the state’s destructive policies toward agriculture and livestock, which are pushing the country toward complete food dependency on imports.
68 million euros in imported dairy in a single year
In 2024 alone, Albania imported 35,428 tons of dairy products, eggs, and honey, valued at 68 million euros. This marks a significant increase from 2023, when 31,000 tons were imported at a value of 62 million euros.
The countries we import the most from are:
Italy: 8,000 tons worth 22 million euros
Greece: 1,586 tons worth 5.2 million euros
Serbia: 2.5 million euros in dairy products
On supermarket shelves, Italian and Greek cheese brands have replaced local producers, who are vanishing one by one due to lack of financial support, rising costs, and the absence of a guaranteed market.
82 million euros in meat from Brazil and the USA – Albanian livestock in collapse
The decline is not limited to milk and dairy. Meat imports have exploded.
In 2024, 48,602 tons of meat were imported, worth a total of 82 million euros.
Brazil: 26.5 million euros
USA: 9.8 million euros
Paraguay: 5.1 million euros
Italy and Greece (the region): also major supplier
These numbers clearly show that the meat market is heavily dependent on imports, while Albanian farms are closing or shrinking every year.
The decline of livestock and milk production: what the Ministry of Agriculture doesn’t say
According to INSTAT, the number of livestock in Albania has dropped from 2.4 million a decade ago to fewer than 1.7 million today. The decline affects cows, sheep, goats, and other cattle, which formed the backbone of local milk and meat production.
Milk production has declined at an alarming rate since 2021, forcing an immediate increase in the import of its byproducts.
Why has this dramatic decline happened?
State policies – Subsidies for livestock are minimal and often benefit politically connected companies, not real farmers.
The cost battle – Rising prices of feed, transport, and energy have made livestock farming unsustainable.
Lack of market security – No long-term contracts, no guarantees for selling milk and meat. Farmers can’t compete with the prices of imported goods.
Bureaucracy and taxation – Small agricultural businesses face inspections, VAT, and penalties they cannot afford.
300 million euros on foreign dairy, 383 million on meat: Albania consumes the world’s production
From 2020 to the end of 2024, Albania has spent:
300 million euros on imported dairy
383 million euros on meat and its byproducts
These amounts would have been enough to develop Albania’s livestock and food processing industry, but they were spent abroad. Instead of a national policy for self-production, the government has eased the import chain and allowed local agriculture to die.
Not even grains anymore – full food dependency on the horizon
According to INSTAT, even grains like wheat and corn are increasingly being imported. This dependency is a major risk during global crises, such as the war in Ukraine. Yet Albania seems to have chosen not to produce even the most basic foods anymore – a country that once fed itself has now become fully dependent.
Is this a plan? Or a deliberate collapse?
The destruction of agriculture and livestock is not accidental. It is the result of policies that favor imports and the wealth that circulates around them: customs, trade representatives, supermarket chains, and wholesale networks, all dominated by a few names closely tied to power.
Local farmers are victims of a distorted market, where competition is not fair and where the state is not a referee but a player on the side of importers.
Albania is consuming itself
The decline in local production is not just an economic tragedy. It is a threat to national food security, a loss of rural and culinary identity, and a dependency that could turn into a crisis.
If the state does not intervene with bold policies to subsidize and protect local production, soon even Gjirokastër’s kashkaval will be nothing more than a nostalgic memory on the empty shelves of a country that has forgotten how to live off its own land.
“KORÇA BOOM”
