MEAT Sector Analyse

II. Producers/Farmers
Cattle
Meat Sector Study
According to MAFCP there are 297,418 farms keeping animals and out of them 226,442
farms keep cattle. The total number of cattle is decreasing over the last years; from 634,000
in 2006, to 577,000 in 2007 and finally to 494,000 in 2009; number of cows is 353,000.
Major regions with cattle farms are Fier, Elbasan, Tirana and Shkoder.
On Albanian farms the following – mainly milk oriented - breeds can be encountered; Jersey
(35 %), Laramane e zeze (Black & White) (29 %), domestic breeds like (15 %), Holstein (13
%) and Simmental (3 %) and others like Taranteze. (Source: MAFCP, 2008, Technical
Report)
The way the cattle are kept on the farms is quite different; on one side there are many small
subsistence farms with 1 – 2 cows, mainly for milking. Albanian average herd size is 2.4
cattle. Animals are staying in primitive tied stall barns, often without any windows. All the
work is done by hand; feeding, removing the manure and also milking.
On the other side there are specialised farms, many more on milk than on meat, with better
premises, even of the majority uses old existing buildings which are slightly adapted.
Nevertheless electricity is often missing, windows very limited so that it is quite dark in the
stables and just a handful of farms has a dung removal installation – partly because labour is
so cheap. Again with very few exceptions there are no manure handling, storage and
treatment facilities.
The number of farms having more than 5 heads is 2,904 and equivalents to around 1 % of all
cattle farms. 20 farms in Albania have more than 50 heads; Lushnja is one farm with 200
calves for fattening.
Slaughtering of cattle is done partly on the farm by the farmer or the butcher who then takes
the meat to his shop. Or the butcher does the slaughtering behind his shop as clients want to
see live animals and are sceptical about readymade de-boned. The correct way foresees
that cattle are slaughtered in approved slaughterhouses; but given the small number of
slaughterhouses – around 20 – in operation and the fact that many of them process just 2
cows a day, one may conclude that slaughtering is not properly done according to the law.
The liquid and solid waste from slaughtering on the farm or in small slaughter points is
bought into illegal landfills and taken away by nearby rivers.
As most farmers are not specialised in meat production they slaughter their animals, calves,
too young and before gaining sufficient weight. The average live weight of slaughtered calves
is about 180 – 200 kg (150 - 170 kg), which is economically much too low; sometimes male
veal is slaughtered with 3 - 4 months and a live weight of 100 kg! Reasons for to early
slaughtering are the demand for very young animals (of all kinds) and the unavailability of
cheap fodder.
Interesting to note that the demand is not expressed in higher prices for younger animals;
experts from the Agriculture Know-How Transfer Centre in Fushe Kruje mentioned that the
sales price for 1 kg live weight is around Lek 300 regardless if the animals has 200 or 400 kg.
To stop the trend slaughtering young animals the MAAR started recently an awareness
campaign promoting 12 months old calves with 400 kg live weight as the ideal weight for
slaughtering.
Meat Sector Study, page 14