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Adela Danaj
Dreams of agricultural exports in China…
During June, the Ministry of Agriculture published sporadic news regarding its activity. In the siwxth month of reporting we have noticed a vague activity schedule in general. So, during this month, in the official website of the Ministry there are news that relate to Minister Panariti’s participation in important international events, which in fact do not bring any positive news in terms of benefits and successes that might have been achieved by the Ministry. The little news that is actually published resembles more humorous news than formal and official notifications.
On June 26, in Sofia, a meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of China and 16 countries from Central and Eastern Europe was held. The aim of the meeting was to officially introduce the Cooperation Promotion in Agriculture between China and these countries. Of course, this initiative sounds positive for China, which is one of the biggest world markets and needs to open new channels of cooperation with more European countries in order to export all its products and import goods and services that it can not provide on its won.
Therefore, as one of the partners in this cooperation, Minister Panariti confirmed the importance of the meeting since Albania has considerably increased the production of vegetables and olive oil and the Chinese market is a good opportunity to export Albanian products.
Is this what the Minister really thinks or was it a case to comment and caught unprepared he said what came first to mind? Has Albania increased agricultural products and will export them to the Chinese market?
According to Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of Hurun Report based in Shanghai, the first designer of the ‘’Rich list’’ in China, the growth in private wealth in China has exceeded Euope by becoming the second richest region in the world and it is on the right track to lead, as in 2016 it is foreseen to surpass even the US.
This means that the Chinese market is second in the world and of course imports are at a global level, so it is not thinkable that Albania could be a potencial country to supply the Chinese market with vegetables and olive oil.
Not only that, the Albanian agriculture market keeps facing quality insurance incidents related to grocery export. We can recall that on June 6th our ally, FYROM, blocked fresh vegetables export, which Mr. Panariti thought could work out for China. This occlusion came as e result of dubts on the Macedonian part regarding the production standarts that Albanian farmers apply.
Even after the solution, minister Panariti didn’t invoke the Macedonian part about the quality, instead he insisted on good neighboring:” Good affinity should be shown through removal of trade barriers”.
In these conditions, each one of us has serious doubts regarding the minister’s public statements when talking about cooperation and collaborators, especially the Chinese market. It is easily understandable that the minister has felt confortable between important global partners and it is true that dreams should be lived, but this doesn’t mean that the abovementioned can be reported on official websites. Nevertheless, in such cases we wish dreams could turn into reality.
References:
1- Ministra e Bujqësisë, Zhvillimit Rural dhe Administrimit të Ujërave. Qershor 2015.
2- Ministri Panariti merr pjesë në “Meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture of China and the 16 CEE countries”, në Sofje.
3- Bota.al. Qershor 2015. E dyta ne bote per numrin e milionereve eshte…Kina.
http://www.bota.al/2015/06/kina-e-dyta-ne-bote-per-numrin-e-milionereve/
4- Gazeta Mapo. Qershor 2015. Maqedonia bllokon eksportet e Shqipërisë!
http://www.mapo.al/2015/06/maqedonia-bllokon-eksportet-e-shqiperise
5- Gazeta Panorama. Qershor 2015.
Maqedonia “zhbllokon” eksportin e perimeve shqiptare.Te parrezikshme per shendetin.