Albania, Bosnia and Montenegro with the highest dependence of food imports in Europe

Foods occupy a large portion of imports of Montenegro, Bosnia, and Albania in relation to other European countries refer to World Bank data for 2023. In Montenegro, foods have 24 percent of total imports with 2023, in Bosnia 16.3% and in Albania 16.1%.

On the other hand, it is seen that Serbia has the lowest weight of the import of foods compared to total imports by only 5.8% in 2023 followed by Slovenia with 6.2%, the Czech Republic with 6.5% and Turkey with 6.8%. Montenegro and Bosnia are known for their terrains with large shrub areas, making it impossible for food to cultivate, as Albania has enough land to produce food for its inhabitants, but a large part of the arable area has become the lawn.

This high dependence on food imports makes our country more susceptible to international crises such as wars, rising transport prices or climate change that affect global production. Our country has significant agricultural potential, but needs to increase investment in this sector to reduce trade deficit.

International financial institutions recommend that in order to reduce dependence on food imports, investments are needed especially in modernizing agriculture through technology and improvements in infrastructure. Support policies for domestic producers such as subsidies, soft loans and training to farmers to increase production and quality and a wider diversification of products produced.

Internal data from INSTAT show that agriculture fell for the fourth year in a row by 2024. Agricultural production fell by -1.1% last year from -1.8 to 2023. 32.2 percent of total employees were employed in the agricultural sector. Since 2019 the contribution of agriculture to employment has declined by 4 points. More detailed data show that agriculture is in decline trajectory mainly due to negative developments on family farms and a strong fall of the livestock sector. In the last decade the number of animals for milk and meat is almost halved by the bankruptcy of small farms.

The population falls in the villages and its aging has made small family farms with animals. For the same reasons, agricultural production in the field has fallen. Family farms for self-consumption are in constant bankruptcy and aging population in the village. Agricultural production is being organized in the form of export businesses. Due to this transition, now self-consuming farmers have turned into consumers that promote the growth of external agricultural products.