Albania and Macedonia have a high trade flow in the import and export of agricultural production due to their geographical proximity.
The promotion and facilitation of trade relations between Albania and Macedonia in the field of agriculture, also in the framework of the implementation of free trade as two countries of CEFTA, was at the center of a meeting held in Ohrid between the Minister of Agriculture and Development Rural, Niko Peleshi and the Macedonian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy Ljupco Nikolovski.During this meeting, Peleshi focused more on the facilitation of customs procedures in the export of early agricultural production, a problem raised earlier by Albanian traders as well as the expansion of the export list for dairy products.
"It was a meeting not only formal and just courtesy, but above all it was a very practical meeting. I want to thank the Minister for the open minds in the direction of the agriculture ministry and I hope that with this political will we have all the opportunities to increase our trading volumes, first, this has been one of the points that we elaborated more of how to make CEFTA and free trade, our more functional trading exchanges, how to increase our trade volume," Peleshi underlined.
"Today we have a trade volume of about 25 million euros."
"Indeed, Albania imports more than exports to Macedonia, but the increase in trade volume, the growth of exports and the increase in imports from both countries is in fact the indicator of the work of our respective ministries. We are competitive, but we are also complementary, so we have the potential and the great potential to use this complementarity, ie to increase trade exchanges through agreements where both parties win. We trust free trade, so this meeting has had a mutual will," Peleshi said.
The trade volume in the agricultural sector for 2017, between Albania and Macedonia was around ALL 3.3 billion. The export / import ratio has improved from 1: 3.3 in 2016, at the level 1: 2.3 in 2017. The most exported products continue to be fresh products: tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh fish, fresh citrus fruits, etc.
Albania and Macedonia cooperate closely in implementing the CEFTA 2006 agreement and since 2011, the trade between the two countries has been liberalized and operated without a customs tariff.
Within CEFTA countries, Macedonia is one of the three main trading partners, with 30.1% of imports of agricultural products and 12.7% of our exports.