Fertilizers in Albania : situation, analysis, and recommendations

This study discusses the impact of the fertilizer shortage (fertilizer use in 1991 was just 33% of what it was in 1985-90, resulting in a 66% decrease in the wheat harvest) and outlines problems in the fertilizer marketing and production systems. For example, there is a rudimentary retail system developing for fertilizer, but it consists primarily of former collective farmers buying fertilizer from old parastatal distributors at the government-mandated ceiling and selling it with a mark-up (at an illegal price) to private farmers. The price problem is compounded by a shortage of agricultural credit and the resulting weak purchasing power of private farmers. A potentially more serious problem is the dramatic decline of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer production since 1991, caused by a lack of raw materials, including natural gas and sulfuric acid. The study makes a number of recommendations, including (1) a 20,000 mt emergency supply of urea should be imported immediately; (2) government price controls on fertilizer should be eliminated; (3) the transportation system should be privatized; (4) urea production should be given priority in the distribution of natural gas supplies; and (5) certain agricultural exports (e.g., fruits and vegetables) should be stimulated to avoid local market gluts and generate foreign exchange.