FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Tourism and agriculture are going in totally opposite trajectories. While the number of tourists is increasing significantly, domestic agricultural production in the markets is being replaced by imports.
In the first five months of this year, fruit and vegetable imports reached 32.5 tons, with a significant increase of 48.4% compared to the same period a year ago. And this dominance of imported agricultural products occurs at a time when we are in the peak of the agricultural production season.
The increase in imports is even more sensitive in terms of value.
The data of INSTAT show that in the first 5 months of this year, fruits and vegetables worth over 23 million euros were imported from about 14 million euros that were in the same period of the previous year. The expansion is estimated at 65 percent.
These data clearly show that the expansion of tourism is increasing imports. This means that part of the currency that is entering the country from tourists, but still goes out to buy greens. The situation is even more alarming in livestock.
The number of cattle continues to decrease. In 2023, we had about 263 thousand heads or 11.5% less than a year ago.
This negative trend in livestock has been going on for several years and has been reflected in the lack of local production in the market, which is also being filled by imports.
Let's take milk as an example. Domestic production has decreased in 2023 to about 900 thousand tons or 7.1% less than a year ago. This decrease was compensated by imports, which for this period have increased by over 27%. This is the situation of the markets today, as we expect over 14 million tourists this year.
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