Viticulture in Albania
Albania is the 42th largest producer of wine in the world. The country has one of Europe`s longest history of viticulture and belongs chronologically to the old world of wine producing countries. The most important wine regions of the country are located in the center but also the mountainous areas in the north, east and south. Following the end of communism in the 20th century, the development and fortunes of the Albanian wine industry were deeply influenced by the economic influences of the country.
In 1912, gained widespread popularity among the local population but was almost destroyed in 1933 by phylloxera. A significant upturn began only after the Second World War, at the end of which wine was still cultivated on only 2,737 hectares (27.37 km2). The most producing region of wine was Durrës County, where grapes was grown on communist state enterprises. In that time the nationwide acreage corresponded approximately to that of tobacco, but was significantly lower than that of olive and fruit trees. The exported wine was consumed primarily in Western Europe such as in Germany.
Moreover, the exports of wine decreased continuously from 61,000 hectoliters in 1971 to 22,000 hectoliters in 1985. The reasons are to be found mainly in outdated production conditions and insufficient technical material that made it difficult to transport and lowered the quality. On the other hand, the export of easily transportable greisen’s was continuously in increase (up to 3500 tons per year), while the export of fresh grapes was marginal.
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