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Agribusiness Opportunties

AATDA is pleased to be working with the International Fertilizer Development Center on a USAID-funded project to develop agricultural associations in Albania. Under this program, AATDA is tasked with developing contacts with U.S. business firms and organizations that may be interested in Albanian agribusiness investment opportunities. If your organization has such an interest, keep checking this site for specific business opportunities. We will publish a synopsis of each opportunity together with contact points for follow-up. AATDA will also assist in providing association development training for targeted Albanian associations that are part of the program.

Background

In January, 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded a Cooperative Agreement to IFDC and its partners to implement a multi-million dollar project that provides Assistance to Albanian Agricultural Trade Associations (AAATA). A team of 40 in-country professionals supplemented by short-term consultants is undertaking a range of activities aimed at expanding agribusiness over a period of three to five years.

Albania’s future lies in fostering the potential of its nascent private entrepreneurs. This project aims squarely at meeting their needs in agribusiness. The purposes of the project are interrelated and reinforcing—to build networks and systems that promote and support agribusiness development, specifically by providing assistance in the development of trade associations, sources of capital, and policy reform.

Project Description

The AAATA concentrates on five major goals, each with specific objectives and outputs:

Guide at least seven Albanian agricultural trade associations to where they are effective, financially sound institutions that serve their members in improving the sustainable growth of agribusiness

Expand the production and profitability of Albania’s emerging private agribusiness enterprises by stimulating new investments

Help agribusiness enterprises obtain access to credit and capital in order to take advantage of economic opportunities

Help transform the Food Research Institute and the Veterinary Research Institute into effective mechanisms for establishing food safety and quality standards and transferring the relevant technology to support Albanian agribusiness development

Foster the development of safe, quality credit unions that serve agricultural trade associations and their networks.

For further information on this project, please call our Project Manager, Sally Kilian, at 301-664-9299 (also see Contact page); or call IFDC Project Manager, Ian Gregory, at 256-381-6600 at IFDC Headquarters in Muscle Shoals, Alabama (e-mail: igregory@ifdc.org); or Chief of Party, Claude Freeman, at 355-42-30022 in Tirana (e-mail: claudef@ifdcalbania.org).

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