For the last four years the European Union and the German Federal Government have supported the development of the agro-food sector in Albania to become a more competitive sector and to generate employment and income. Approximately 50% of Albania’s workforce is employed in this sector which accounts for more than 20% of the country's GDP.

The project “Support to Agriculture and Rural Development” was funded by the European Union with a contract value of 10M EUR in the framework of IPA 2011, the Albanian Government and the Federal Government of Germany, and has been implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).

A new “Learning by Doing” model was implemented by the project, the “IPARD-like grant scheme” as a win-win story to get prepared for better absorption of the IPARD[1] 2016 – 2020 funds of another EUR 91M provided by the European Union and the Albanian Government. The agricultural administration received trainings on real cases to set up an EU compliant administrative control system, while farmers and agro-processor applied for investment grants to modernise their businesses. Jointly with the Agency for Agricultural and Rural Development (AZHBR), GIZ has managed 255 grant applications with a total volume of applied investment of 46M EUR. 78 farmers and agro-processors, with a total investment amount of 10.6M EUR, fulfilled successfully all EU conditions and received grants totalling to 4,5M EUR.

For the future, access of farmers and agribusinesses to the IPARD funds depends on the successful entrustment of the national authorities with budget implementation tasks. As in the case of IPARD-like application process, Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration via the Agency for Agricultural and Rural Development (AZHBR) will be responsible for making these funds available to farmers. Ministry of Finance will have the role of a supervisory authority. The project has supported the Albanian administration in reaching this important milestone as a sign of great responsibility in the EU accession process. The IPARD entrustment package was sent to the European Commission. The administrative performance of the national authorities will be assessed to enforce accountable, transparent management and control procedures to protect the financial interest of the EU.