Resource Use Efficiency of Olive Oil Production in Albania

Following the drastic changes after the year 1990, Albanian agriculture encountered numerous problems that caused changes in the market structure. The liberalization of the trade system started right after this year. Now, Albania applies an open and liberalized trade system. During these 24 years, Albania has gone through a series of political and socio-economic changes which transformed the agricultural production and agro-industry of the country. The new situation created has its impact on the balance of the foreign trade for agricultural products. Like a lot of other products, the major part of the oil in Albania comes from import. This is because of the difficulties in insuring the raw material needed for the processing oil industry and the absence of the infrastructure and the adapt industry. The farmers are not interested in oil plants because of the low economic profitability and furthermore the already existing plants were destroyed after the 1990's. This study aims at assessing resource use efficiency of the olive oil manufacturing industry, evaluating the marketing potential of olive oil, identifying the comparative advantages of olive oil production in Albania.

Ana Kapaj (Mane) is a lecturer/researcher in Agricultural Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Agribusiness since 2001. Got her MSc Degree at the Hohenheim University, Germany and her PhD degree at Agriculture University of Tirana. Associated Professor since 2012, she counts several publications in international journals and conferences.