On June 8th, 2020, the Albanian Agribusiness & Tourism Support Facility (AATSF), organized a webinar to present the latest AATSF study on the impact of the Covid-19 on seasonal agricultural business activities as vegetables and strawberries.
The Panelists, Ms. Adela Leka, AATSF’s Deputy Team Leader, Mr. Ilir Pilku, AATSF’s Senior Agriculture Expert and Mr. Ermal Baze, Analyst for Advice for Small Business EBRD Program, have provided the audience with a situational overview of most relevant agricultural products of the season in Albania.
During the webinar, the panelist analyzed recent developments and outlooks, particularly looking into the pandemic’s impact on different value chain segments and implications for Financial Institutions and present support mechanisms and risk mitigation strategies.
This study was based on the fact that the agribusiness sector faced an unusual situation related to the strict rules affected by the pandemic.
The general aim of this study is to provide an overview of the agricultural products of the season in Albania, mainly of vegetables in greenhouses and strawberries, analysing recent developments and the current situation, with special focus on the impact of the pandemic situation Covid-19 throughout the value chain including Financial Institutions, and opportunities to mitigate the risk of losses in these sectors.
This webinar attracted much interest from participants from AATSF’s Partner Financial Institutions (Intesa SanPaolo Bank, ProCredit Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, OTP Bank), interested agribusinesses and representative agriculture state institutions.
Some of the study findings shows that during pandemic period, greenhouse sector has increased its profits, which shows that investing in this sector should be a priority for the general economic development for agriculture industry. While, it has been concluded that in the future this investment should be associated with risk mitigation strategy and proper business planning.
In addition, EBRD’s Advice for Small Business Program, offers more than just financial support opportunities for agribusinesses. EBRD provides Business advice for small and medium-sized businesses, including business planning, marketing, financial management, HR and quality assurance standards preparatory assistance.
To see the full webinar video please visit the link https://youtu.be/wnmbvLhNIn4 on our YouTube account.
The AATSF program will organize additional webinars in the future focusing on new upcoming studies related to coronavirus impact on sectorial agriculture products in Albania.
The Albanian Agribusiness & Tourism Support Facility – AATSF, is a project funded and developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in cooperation and with support from the Government of Albania.