Local/Regional Economic Development in South ... - Value Chains

6.8 Public-Private Partnership in Albania – Controlled Cultivation and Qualified
Collecting of Medicinal Plants and Spices
Ismail Beka, Katja Kalusch
Context
Thanks to its very limited development of farm culture,
Albania enjoys a rich deposit of medicinal plants and
spices. As one of the most important European source regions
for these natural products, Albania today is one of
Europe’s main exporters. Both controlled cultivation in
mostly small farming operations and collection in the wild
are very labor intensive and are concentrated predominantly
in marginal locations. And so although medicinal
and spice herbs represent a niche product, they can make
major contributions in the fight against poverty and to the
development of the regional economy.
The plants are extracted mainly in the poor regions in the
north of the country, in particular in the areas of Shkodra,
Korca, Elbasan and Gramsh. Collecting and processing
medicinal and spice plants has a long tradition here. Large
parts of the population are reliant on the riches of nature
to earn their living.
Of the approximately 3,500 types and varieties, about 200
are exported. The main buyers, in addition to Germany,
are the United States, Italy, Turkey and France. The income
from the export of medicinal and spice plants in
2004 amounted to about EUR 12 million.
The entire delivery chain – including the Albanian collectors
and producers, the processors, and the exporters
– is faced with the big challenge of meeting the steadily
increasing requirements of foodstuffs legislation and trade
and industry in the import countries. This is where the
support from the company KRÄUTER MIX GmbH,
Abtswind, Germany, comes in. Within the context of a
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project conducted with
GTZ, standards are being announced and disseminated
for controlled cultivation and qualified collection in Albania.
The guidelines put out by the World Health Organization
(WHO) for Good Agricultural and Collection
Practices (GACP) are forming the foundation.
The goal of the PPP project is to promote controlled collection,
controlled cultivation, and the production of select
medicinal herbs at a pharmaceutical quality level. Parallel
to the technical care of propagating and cultivating
activities, all individuals participating in production are
trained.
Project implementation
Training and upgrading: In training courses set up to meet
a wide range of needs, Albanian partners are being shown
how to implement the GACP guidelines consistently not
only in their own business but also for the corresponding
raw commodities suppliers. The training courses teach:
• Propagating and cultivating methods of medicinal
and spice plants in open ground
• Ecological linkages in the harvesting of medicinal
plants
• Legal conditions in Albania and in sales markets
By the end of the project, 10 to 15 intermediate buyers and
20 to 50 professional collectors will be trained.
Raising awareness and exchange of expert information:
The development potential of collecting medicinal and
spice plants and the correlating job and income opportunities
for collector initiatives are being presented at information
events. Informational material in Albania is being
made available.
The exchange of expert information among professional
collectors, producers, agricultural experts, and natural scientists
is a major element of the project. The goal on the
one hand is to improve communication and coordination
along the value chain (from collection or cultivation to the
end buyer or exporter) and on the other hand to improve
the transfer of knowledge from advising and science to
production and trade.
Conservation of genetic resources and experimental cultivation:
Within the context of the PPP project, highgrade
medicinal plants are being cultivated in a heatable
thermo/double-film greenhouse to conserve genetic resources.
Furthermore, cultivation experiments to cultivate
types of Gentiana lutea (gentian) and Primula veris
(cowslip) are being undertaken. At the end of the project,
the greenhouse will be handed over to a local partner for
further use.
Traceability and quality assurance: In the interest of food
security and of consumer protection, lawmakers, the processing
industry and retail trade in the EU are requiring
the traceability of products through the use of complete
origin documentation. Within the context of the project,
KRÄUTER MIX GmbH supports not only the introduction
of such systems for origin documentation but also
other measures for quality assurance starting from collection
or cultivation all the way to the consumer. In this
connection, KRÄUTER MIX GmbH is also developing
a supplier evaluation system.
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