Regional aspects of the Albanian animal production: Regional distribution and implications for the agricultural policy

This paper provides a regional analysis of Albanian livestock sector in terms of the characteristics of production structure and potential policy implications. Even though there is no significant. differenzces in the regional distribution of cattle, sheep and goats are mainly growing up in the interior regions of the country and especially in Is southern regions, while poultry and pork are located in the coastal regions. More specifically, according to the econometric estimations it can be noted that cattle production is mainly located in rural areas, sheeps in peripheral regions with rich pastures, goats in peri-pheral In and mountain regions, pork in plains and poultry in plain as well as closed to urban areas. For pork and poultry, policy should improve the availability of feeding stuff and the effectiveness of marketing channels in order to ensure the coverage of urban demand for meat. For the rest of livestock production, policy should focus on rural development with farm income support through indirect payments and structural measures in milk collection and processing.