MEAT Sector Analyse

Meat Sector Study
system will be in place transfer of agricultural land either by purchase or rent will increase.
This will give motivated small holders the chance to increase their production and to make
the step from subsistence to market oriented farming. Bigger farms will encourage a more
commercial acting.
Beside the size of agricultural holdings also their premises such as stables will need some
upgrading and here IPARD funds will have a big impact as soon as they will be available.
Furthermore it will be important to have well trained farmers who have a clear focus and
good commercial understanding. The public extension service and private experts will face
new challenges to overcome the actual deficits.
As IPARD funds will require from farmers also a fulfilling of at national and soon of EU
standards it will be crucial that farmers are aware of these standards related to occupational
health and safety, environmental issues, food and feed safety, animal health, animal welfare
and others.
Actually fodder costs are too high. Also the fodder production is not as good as it could be
and on the almost 200,000 ha there is a lot of room for improvements. Fodder must be
produced in a larger scale to decrease the production costs. Then also the locally produced
fodder like alfa-alfa, maize silage and others will become competitive towards the imported
one.
Investments in agricultural holdings as enabled by the upcoming IPARD programme will
push the sector. The investments which will not be eligible under IPARD must find cofinancing
in national support programmes.
The same is valid for the meat processing sector and the investments will have to focus on
newly established slaughterhouses and hopefully a rendering plant. The meat processing
companies will also benefit from the IPARD programme but most likely the big ones will find
their way also without support programmes like in the past. It should be mentioned that the
enforcement of better waste disposal will find broader acceptance if co-financed by IPARD.
Final recommendations in order to target the specific investments
The farming community is urgently waiting for the IPARD support, at least the kind of farmers
who are trained and motivated to make their living out of commercial farming. These farmers
will find their way to pre-finance their investments under IPARD and will therefore benefit
from the new support scheme. The majority will not be willing or able to do more than
subsistence farming and will on the long run stop their farming activities.
Concerning the meat processing sector the slaughterhouses must be newly build and
managed by the private sector under strong monitoring by the NFA. Without prospering
slaughterhouses the Albanian farmers will not find access to the meat processing sector. To
make slaughterhouses profitable the NFA must stop all illegal animal movements and
slaughtering as soon as possible. Then these slaughterhouses will be a bottleneck and will
enable an improved veterinary control scheme. At the same time they will provide sufficient
quantities in different certified qualities to the processing industries.
The meat processors, especially the bigger ones, are doing fine and will not face many
difficulties fulfilling EU standards. They also do not worry about more expensive imported
meat as long as all competitors have to use the same raw material.
It will be the big challenge for MAFCP to improve the livestock sector and to increase the
food safety by channelling all animals to slaughterhouses. Having better local fresh meat –
for fresh meat consumption but also for processing – the industry will make use of it.
Meat Sector Study, page 66