MEAT Sector Analyse

Meat Sector Study
The livestock husbandry deals on one side with ruminants like cows, sheep and goats and
on the other side with pigs and poultry.
The ruminants are taking advantage of the Albanian pastures which are plentiful available.
However the number of all ruminants heads is going continuously down due to:
• Limited farm size and dominance of subsistence farming with livestock farmers not able
to invest;
• As meat production with ruminants requires long production cycle we face a slow return
on investment; (situation is better with dairy farmers as they get regular cash revenues
by selling milk);
• Poor premises and outdated technology, for example stables without windows and too
little and old tractors;
• Poor infrastructure; for example missing water holes in remote areas;
• Poor marketing channels and no uniform offer regarding qualities and quantities;
• Very limited demand from the slaughterhouses and meat processors;
• Migration to urban areas.
On the other side are the pig and poultry producers and the animal head counts are
increasing continuously. Also here we have two different groups with quite different
performances. There are the subsistence farmers again who keep a dozen chickens in the
backyard for self-consumption and additionally often 2 - 3 piglets – also for self consumption.
The more commercial pig farmers are struggling with the following handicaps:
• No specialisation of pig farms because piglets of good quality and sufficient quantities
(uniform groups) cannot be purchased on weekly markets so that farmers have to get
involved in the whole process: mother sows – piglet production – fattening;
• Consequently piglets have been imported (from Serbia and other countries) and as it
was more profitable importers brought in 80 – 90 kg pigs almost ready for slaughtering;
• Main reason why imports of ready pigs are cheaper is that fodder, if not produced on
the farm, is expensive;
• Poor marketing channels and no uniform offer of fattened pigs regarding qualities and
quantities.
The situation in the chicken sector looks much better as here are several investors active
who have the funds for this capital-intensive business with fast returns on investments. Often
these investors are already active in agribusiness for example with feed production
companies or slaughterhouses. There is a trend to establish a complete integrated chain of
operations, from chicken farms to feed mill and retail outlets. These new chicken farms of
agribusiness type can therefore also use cheaper fodder as it is produced often in own feed
mills.
Coming to the processors we also see quite different performances; slaughterhouses
underperform and meat processing companies do well.
In Albania there are many slaughterhouses not in operation (see also UNDP Albania; The
Agribusiness Sector in Albania, Inward Investment Opportunities; 05) and the active around
20 slaughterhouses do daily slaughtering of 1 – 2 cattle and / or few pigs or small ruminants.
All slaughterhouses are working far below their capacities because nobody forces the traders
and butchers to slaughter there; this will be one of the main activities of the upcoming
National Food Authority (NFA). Therefore slaughterhouses face no or limited raw material
supply. Usually the facilities are outdated and in most cases they do not even comply with
the Albanian law. Consequently EU standards on hygiene, public authority, traceability and
HACCP are not fulfilled and liquid and solid waste material is just dumped into landfills or
Meat Sector Study, page 8