Organic production is an interesting market opportunity to boost rural development in Albania. The SASA project aimed to develop an institutional framework and a market that allow farmers to grow their crops in a more sustainable manner and to generate higher income. SASA supported both production and marketing issues while building up the needed capacity and resources for certification. The main project partners were Bioadria, an organic farmer association, and entities that grew of out the project: Albinspekt, a local certification body, and the Institute of Organic Agriculture (IOA). The project contributed significantly to improving the situation of the population in those rural areas where SASA was been intervening, through the adoption of environmentally-friendly production practices and new business partnerships for organic, mainly for export, and for typical Albanian products, primarily for the domestic market. All in all, the SASA project is recognized to be a show case project in the area of market development as it has successfully stimulated commercial, technological and institutional innovations through its participatory market chain approach (PMCA).
Coordination
Publication: Sector study on organic agriculture in Albania: http://www.fibl.org/en/service-en/news-archive/news/article/first-organic-sector-study-for-albania-now-published.html
