FLASH
Shkruar nga Auron Tare
Garlic from China, eggplants from Bulgaria, Greek oranges...
This is a normal shop in one of the historic neighborhoods of Gjirokastra.
I asked the owner what products he had from the village.
But he pointed at me with his finger, look at it for yourself - Except for spinach, nothing is ours. Vegetables have become like tourists.
Garlic from China
Eggplants from Bulgaria
Greek orange
Greek Chestnuts
Walnuts
The big plums are Italian, the small ones are Macedonian.
Italian Peaches
Turkish Pomegranates
"Oh wait," I told him when he finished counting, "the potatoes and onions are ours."
No - he told me they come from Germany
"No way," I told him - "The cologne is filled with potatoes and onions."
"No, not German ones," you told me. "They come cheaper than ours." The gentleman who was selling in the store, obviously a well-read person, continued with a long sigh.
Do you know when the thornbush got its start in this country of ours? When the peasants come here and buy a sack of German potatoes or a bunch of onions. Do you understand where we have fallen? The peasant comes to me to buy potatoes from Germany.
We are worse off than in the old days when peasants would come and buy wheat bread in the city.
In fact, beyond the despair of a normal citizen in a city like Gjirokastra, such a situation in agriculture is extremely alarming.
Today, we are a society that not only no longer produces anything in the field of agriculture, but we generally consume products imported from abroad.
Our market, filled with products that shine with wax and chemicals that are supposed to withstand time, shows the degradation of agriculture, which beyond the great health risk has a very high economic cost. The currency brought to us from tourism actually goes abroad to buy food products that are put on the market to feed the number of tourists who come to the country.
Meanwhile, a strong agriculture would not only ensure quality in our products, which would support the entire tourism sector while keeping foreign currency in the country.
Certainly a very simple concept to understand but unmanaged to date.
Beyond boasting about the high number of tourists visiting the country, no one speaks out or takes responsibility for why our agriculture today cannot even produce garlic. Which comes from China, of course.
In Britain all garlics are imported from China.