Studies on the impact assessment of subsidy schemes on farm performance indicators show contradictory results. Some studies indicate improvements in farm efficiency, while others highlight distortions and negative externalities. This paper analyses the impact of budgetary support provided to dairy farms in Albania based on a structured farm survey. The impact is assessed using causal forest, an adaptation of Breiman’s random forest algorithm for treatment effect estimation. Results suggest that subsidies positively impact the number of milking cows, output (quantity of milk sold), and revenues but have no impact on employment, yields, investment, or future investment plans. The study suggests that public support to dairy farmers should be conditioned on technology improvement measures and CAP-like cross-compliance obligations.

Access to finance poses a significant challenge for smallholder farmers, influencing the prospects for improving their livelihoods. Financial literacy stands out as a pivotal factor in overcoming this hurdle, playing a crucial role in attaining access to finance, maintaining creditworthiness and fostering economic stability. The objective of this study is to enable an understanding of the financial literacy level of smallholder farmers and to explore empirically the factors that can be associated with their financial literacy. The study is based on a field survey using structured questionnaires targeting 506 smallholder farmers located in different parts of Albania. Descriptive analysis and logit regression analyses are carried out in order to study the relationship between farmers’ capacity to calculate credit obligations and their farm assets, access to knowledge, access to financial services and behaviours related to financial record keeping. The ability to correctly calculate the value of the credit costs has been found to be positively associated with access to previous training, experience with application for accessing subsidies, access to a bank account, and their habit of financial keeping records.

Farm to school (F2S) programmes ensure school pupils receive an appropriate diet, fight malnutrition, and motivate children to attend school. The participation of local smallholders in F2S schemes contributes to these objectives, but also provides a market opportunity for local small farms. This is particularly important in the case of developing or emerging economies that are characterised by malnutrition among children and where smallholdings often struggle with limited market access, as is the case with Albania. The aim of this paper is to explore the main factors affecting farmers’ willingness to participate in a F2S scheme using data from a structured farm survey. Regression analysis results show that economically based motivation (farm-related factors such as size and post-harvest losses) intertwined with social capital factors and attitudinal indicators (experience and attitudes towards cooperation, reliance on local governmental support, information, and product safety perception level) affect farmers’ willingness to participate in F2S schemes. For farmers to participate viably in such schemes, it is necessary to provide knowledge, awareness, and support for ensuring compliance with food safety and quality standards and for improving cooperation.

Based on the theory of planned behaviour, this study examines the mediation effect of attitudes on the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and intention to buy domestic wine in transition countries. The survey was conducted on a heterogeneous sample of 372 wine buyers from Albania and Kosovo during 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural Equation Modelling by Partial Least Squares was used to analyse the collected data. The main results of this study show that the theoretical model from the theory of planned behaviour is valid in the case of buying behaviour of domestic wine in Kosovo, while in Albania, the subjective norm has no significant influence on the intention to buy domestic wine and perceived behavioural control has no significant influence on consumer behaviour. Consumer ethnocentrism has a positive influence on attitudes towards buying domestic wine and there is a partial mediating effect of attitudes on the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and the intention to buy domestic wine. Intention to buy domestic wine shows a very strong and positive correlation with behaviour in both countries. The results of the study provide valuable information for food marketers who should develop an appropriate marketing strategy if they wish to...

Kosovo and Albania, in a manner similar to other Western Balkan countries, face serious challenges in relation to national food safety and control in terms of legislation, infrastructure, institutional capacity and private investments. Consequently, food safety is a major concern for consumers in this region. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of consumer perspectives on food safety and quality. Two surveys, one with consumers in Prishtina and one in Tirana, targeted more than 600 consumers. Despite the prevalent problems with food safety, Kosovars perceive domestic dairy products as significantly better than Albanians do when compared with imported food products. Conversely, Albanian consumers use food safety- and quality-related information about cheese and milk more frequently. The most frequently used safety and quality cues for both samples are expiry date, domestic and local origin and brand reputation. Food safety certificates are used by Albanians more often than by Kosovars, and international food standards such as ISO, HACCP or Global GAP are mostly unknown to both consumer groups.

mountainous areas and the valorisation opportunities arising from the certification of origin. The study explores consumer preferences toward the main attributes of goat-kid meat such as origin, weight and quality-certification. A Conjoint Choice Experiment was utilised to design the survey and a Latent Class Analysis Model employed to analyse the results of a survey carried out with 250 residents living in urban areas of Tirana. Origin was found to be the most important factor for all three identified consumer classes. This result can be used to producers’ advantage if labelling and other marketing tools are available to inform consumers of the products’ origin. Implementation and enforcement of origin identification should be a priority for the government and other stakeholders.

Quality and safety are important attributes for consumers in developed and transitional countries such as Kosovo. This study aims to examine Kosovar consumers’ characteristics, attitude and preferences towards meat as well as to provide meat consumer profiling using a descriptive analysis together with the Food-Related Lifestyle approach. We drew a sample of 300 Kosovar consumers by means of intercept sampling in Prishtina, Prizren and Gjilan. Results suggest that Kosovar consumers perceive country of origin (COO), especially domestic origin, as an indicator of quality and safety for meat. Two consumer profiles were identified through segmentation analysis: conservative and innovative food consumers. The innovative food consumer is the most interesting target segment for Kosovar meat. There is potentially a market for meat products bearing food safety and origin labels. Therefore, private operators could consider the use of safety certification labels to signal to consumers that their products are safer than common products. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of our findings for businesses and policy makers regarding domestic meat promotion strategies.

Building on transaction cost economics theoretical framework, we examined the determinants of long-term business relationships between farmers and buyers in the Albanian dairy chain in a context characterised by weak institutions and lack of formal contract. Logistic regression analysis was employed to test the model on primary data collected from a sample of 315 Albanian farmers engaged in the production of sheep and goat milk. The study results support our hypotheses that trust, uncertainty and investment in specific assets are key determinants of long-term relationships. Implications at managerial and policy-making levels are discussed. At a managerial level, dairy owners and managers need to build trust with farmers and mitigate uncertainties as a precondition for long-term relationships. At the policy level, the government subsidy schemes need to be further refined in order to motivate farmers to increase flock size and strengthen vertical relationships in the dairy value chain, the latter being a precondition also to achieve traceability and improve standards.

This study analyses the impact of government subsidy schemes on farm production capacity, technical efficiency and use of idle production factors (land and labour) in the olive and vineyard sectors of Albanian agriculture. The paper uses a quasi-experimental design by applying a propensity score matching method based on a structured survey conducted in 2013. The results show that the government subsidy scheme had a net positive impact on areas planted with olives and grapevines, and on part-time on-farm employment. On the other hand, no significant net impact was observed regarding farm size and crop yields. This is the first time that such an in-depth impact assessment of government subsidies in the agriculture sector has been carried out in Albania, thus the results will be useful both for scientists and policy makers in agriculture and rural development.