The decline of heads in livestock leads to record meat imports by 2021

Last year, meat imports increased sharply, reaching a record in the last two decades, according to INSTAT data.

In 2021 meat imports marked 43.8 thousand tons, with an increase of 9 percent with the pandemic year 2020 and 6.4% compared to the normal year 2019. Companies imported at cheap prices during 2021 after imports in value in the last 5 years do not represent a substantial change, as their quantity is increasing significantly in recent years (see attached chart).

Meat imports are expected to increase further in the coming years, for two basic reasons.

The first is related to the rapid decline in the number of livestock. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the number of farms breeding more than 5 cows has been reduced from 4,250 farms (in 2015) to 3,472 farms (in 2019), confirming farmers’ difficulties with rising input and feed costs , high cost of tillage and low price of milk. The number of beef cattle is also experiencing the same negative trend, while the average farm is also very low 2.48 cattle / farm. Also the number of sheep and goats fell by 18% each to 5 in the period 2015-2020.

Secondly meat imports will be driven by increased demand due to the increase in the number of tourists. About 5.7 million foreign visitors visited the country last year. The number of visitors is growing at double-digit rates from year to year, as the demand for meat from bars and restaurants is increasing.

Meat is the basis of traditional recipes in our country. Altin Prenga, who owns agritourism units, Mrizi i Zanave has claimed that the supply of meat to the country is becoming more and more difficult and expensive.

The increase in the price of meat, which serves as a raw material for almost all restaurants in the country, affects the increase in final prices in these units.

The decline in leaders was also one of the main factors for the increase of about 20-40% in the retail prices of dairy products. Monitor

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