MEAT Sector Analyse

Meat Sector Study
A family can make a living off 5 sows but pig production costs are high – this is because the
majority of feed grains and all soya have to be imported plus these imported feedstuffs then
attract a tax of 20 %.
Farmers with 1 or 2 sows feed them on home grown feeds. Maize is commonly grown and
dried in open racks. Most small farmers have a couple of cows with the milk being used for
cheese production. The whey is then used as pig feed. Farmers who have 5 sows or more
buy in pig feed. Buying and selling of pigs is done through numerous local markets.
Feed is bagged in meal or pellets form and all feeding is done by hand. Most farmers dump
all the slaughtering by-products and the liquid waste usually runs into the nearby river.
(Source: LUMB, Stuart; Albanian Pig Production; 2004)
Poultry
The total number of poultry is steadely growing and reached 8,313,000 in 2009; out of them
5,138,000 chickens – after 4,087,000 in 2000. The chicken (broiler) sector, even affected by
the avian influenza in 2006, is growing fast. According to MAFCP there are 297,418 farms
keeping animals and out of them 279,522 farms raise chicken.
As the total number of chickens is around five million, in average there are 18 chickens on a
farm (Source: MAFCP; Statistical Yearbook 2009).
The small farmers have just 5 – 10 chicken and grow their own feed such as maize. Chicken
are usually kept in small premises or together with the other farm animals. Manure storage is
not known and slaughtering takes place on the farm. Consequently the productivity is low
and just the surplus is sold in the neighbourhood.
As it is seen from the data of the following table shows that there are 38 meat oriented
poultry farms, 17 out of them keep more than 10,000 heads like “Driza Ltd”, Fier with an
annual capacity of more than 1 million heads, “Uina Ltd”, Librazhd with an annual capacity of
600 thousand heads, “Agrozo Ltd”, Lushnje, with an annual capacity of about 800 thousand
heads, “Chicken Farm” Kavaje, with an annual capacity of about 1.5 million heads and
“Shehu” Korce, with an annual capacity of about 600 thousand heads.
Table 8: Poultry meat farm
Poultry meat farm 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Total numbers 23 20 29 36 38
1000 - 5000 Head 11 8 7 17 16
5000 -10000 Head 3 3 6 5 5
over 10000 Head 9 9 16 14 17
(Source: MAFCP; Statistical Yearbook 2009)
Due to the expansion of these centres, broiler production increased from 4,000 tons in 2000
to 16,000 tons in 2008 and 17,000 tons in 2009 (Source: MAFCP; Statistical Yearbook 2009).
In 2009 total live weight production in Albania reached 143,000 tons; cattle 66,000 tons,
sheep and goat 44,000 tons, pigs 16,000 tons and poultry 17,000 tons or 11,88 % of the total
production.
Meat Sector Study, page 20