What do we eat in Albania today when we can’t even produce garlic? Garlic from China, eggplants from Bulgaria, oranges from Greece...

This is a normal shop in one of the historic neighborhoods of Gjirokastra.

I asked the owner what products come from the village.

He pointed and said, “Look for yourself — except for the spinach, nothing here is ours. Vegetables have become like tourists.”

Garlic from China.

Eggplants from Bulgaria.

Oranges from Greece.

Chestnuts from Greece.

Walnuts from Greece.

Big plums from Italy, small ones from North Macedonia.

Peaches from Italy.

Pomegranates from Turkey.

“Oh, wait,” I said when he finished counting, “the potatoes and onions must be ours.”

“No,” he replied, “they come from Germany.”

“That’s impossible,” I said, “Kolonja is full of potatoes and onions.”

“No, no,” he insisted, “they’re German. They come cheaper than ours.”

The shopkeeper, clearly an educated man, sighed deeply and went on:

“You know when everything went wrong in this country? When farmers started coming here to buy a sack of German potatoes or a string of onions. Can you imagine? Farmers coming to the city to buy potatoes from Germany!

We’re worse off than in the old days, when farmers came to town to buy wheat bread.”

Beyond the despair of an ordinary citizen in a city like Gjirokastra, such a situation in agriculture is deeply alarming.

Today, we are a society that not only no longer produces anything in the field of agriculture but mostly consumes imported goods.

Our markets, filled with products that shine from wax and chemicals meant to preserve them longer, reflect the decay of agriculture — a decay that, beyond its serious health risks, carries a high economic cost. The foreign currency brought in by tourism is actually flowing out to buy imported food to feed the very tourists who visit the country.

Meanwhile, a strong agricultural sector would ensure quality local products that could support tourism and keep the money inside the country.

It’s a very simple concept to understand, yet one that has been completely mismanaged to this day.

Beyond the boasting about the record number of tourists visiting the country, no one talks about or takes responsibility for why our agriculture can’t even produce garlic anymore which, of course, comes from China.

“KORÇA BOOM”