In Albania, they love foreign wine, within a year 6.5 million liters were imported, mostly from Italy, Kosovo and France

In Albania, they love foreign wine, within a year 6.5 million liters were imported, mostly from Italy, Kosovo and France.

News

Express newspaper
08/02/2026 14:43

Albanians do not prefer domestically produced wine, and this is also evident in all the restaurant displays which are filled with foreign wine.

According to customs data, during 2025, 6,548,000 liters were imported into Albania, dominated by Italian, Kosovar and French wine with prices ranging from 80-600 lek/liter of wine.

While premium wine arrives from the Netherlands and Spain in amounts ranging from 1000-4000 lekë, but this in very small quantities.

On the other hand, Albanian wineries produced 1,502,000 liters of wine in the same year.

The fact that we enjoy wine produced outside our borders does not mean that domestic wine is not of good quality. According to agricultural experts, imported wine competes with domestic wine in quantity and price, but not in quality. But very little marketing is done for domestic wine.

Agriculture expert, Agim Rrapaj says: “The main reason is that Albania, in the agreement it has with the EU, has accepted that a quota of wine will enter duty-free. This makes the sales units in Albania prefer this wine because they sell it at a price 4-5 times higher, which is more profitable. Meanwhile, Albanian wine is produced from grapes and at the same time has no marketing.”

In other countries, domestic products are protected not only by supporting them financially, but also by offering them a good business climate, so that they can reach the consumer’s table as easily as possible.

“Many countries have solved this by forcing OBUs to have a stand with Albanian wine. We have requested this from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economy, where they should force all sales units to have Albanian wine in their market. This is not done.”, adds the expert.

Those who are most affected by this choice are vineyard farmers and wine producers who have had a stock of wine products left in their cellars for years, even though our wine in Europe has been rated with maximum points for taste and quality. /TopChannel