Farmers in Divjaka gave up wheat to plant sunflowers, but the market continues to shrink

Thanas Veliu, the farmer from Grabjani in Divjaka in southwestern Albania, planted wheat and sunflowers on his 12 ha of land.

He says that he cannot provide for his family with wheat as he sold it at a discount that does not even cover the production costs.
“The costs of wheat are many times higher than what I sold for, 25 Lek per kilogram. I was forced to sell it to livestock farms as animal feed. But many other farmers have it unsold”, said farmer Thanas Veliu.
Sunflower is a good agricultural crop, but its price is also in danger of falling as the planted areas are increasing, while the market is shrinking. Despite this, the farmer says that there is a solution so that farmers do not fail even with this crop.
“A bio-diesel factory could very well be here because we produce a lot of oil plants such as sunflower, soy and corn. At the moment, we are selling the hybrid seed for 150 Lek per kilogram, while the one for consumption is 70-80 Lek per kg,” says Veliu.
After each agricultural season, farmers are looking for a market, they ask to be subsidized like their colleagues in the region, so as not to compete with imported products which surprisingly come to Albania at a price many times lower than the crops that are produced in the country.

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