FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 09/99 - ALBANIA (16 September)
Cereal output in 1999 is likely to fall by 24 percent to 477 000 tonnes, below average and covering only 50 percent of the domestic cereal requirement. An FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission which visited the country in June, found that the two main factors which affected cereal production were excessive rainfall during the autumn planting season and a preference by farmers to grow more lucrative vegetable crops. Combined, these factors led to a sharp reduction in the areas sown to cereals to 177 000 hectares. Growing conditions have been satisfactory overall and the yield of both wheat and maize is expected to be similar or marginally higher than in 1998, due to the absence of major diseases and pest infestations. Wheat (the basic food cereal) is expected to account for only 311 000 tonnes. Thus, the deficit of cereals which would have to be imported to meet normal consumption requirements in 1999/2000 is estimated at up to 478 000 tonnes, including 373 000 tonnes of wheat and 17 000 tonnes of rice. The bulk of the cereal import requirement is expected to be met commercially. This requirement excludes the food needs of refugees and host families, which are being met through a separate international assistance programme.
The precarious food security situation being experienced by many households is attributable mainly to the general economic and development difficulties that the country has experienced in the 1990's, rather than to the Kosovo crisis. Nevertheless, inadequate access to food, as a result of very low incomes continues to be a problem for poor households, and particularly the poorest households in the north and northeast mountainous regions.
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