Challenges and Threats in Dairy Industry of Kosovo

• Author: Isak Berbatovci
• Position: European University of Tirana
• Pages: 86-95

86

Vol. 4 No.3

January, 2019

Balkan Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2410-759X

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

Challenges and Threats in Dairy Industry of Kosovo

Isak Berbatovci

European University of Tirana

Abstract

Livestock, milk and dairy products in Kosovo have been always in high demand and was main

and only source of income for many people in Kosovo due to high rate of unemployment,

therefore it is essential that to bring the a ention to this sector’s development and to analyse

dairy industry and its challenges and threats within the fi eld. Semi-structured questionnaires

were used to interview 61 respondents, mainly owners or managers of businesses in the dairy

industry.

In general, Kosovo dairy industry is characterised with slow development due to the limited

investments such as capital for lending as well as high interest in a banking sector which leads

unsuitable loans, shortage of fi nancial support that refl ects the whole industry development.

In addition, as a result of high production cost due to poor infrastructure, lack of trust due to

poor formal business wri en contract, low production e ciency, limited economy of scale and

relationships between the actors the level development of dairy industry is not satisfactory.

In recent decades, the industry is demanding for the advanced and suitable government

regulations as the country’s growth in social and economic situation, therefore challenges,

threats identifi ed and recommendation in this study could be taking into account and applied

into the dairy industry, in order to see the successful future on this sector.

Keywords: Challenges, Dairy Industry, Participants, Constraints, Threats.

Introduction

Overall, the dairy industry in Kosovo and agriculture, in general, have a history

of dealing with di culties and threats. Before the 90s, in the socialist system, the

expressed concerns were the low milk production on farms, lack of technologies,

state ownership, and the small number of commercial private farms. But over time,

the nature of the di culties has changed, during the 90s the command production

system had broken apart and cooperatives had dissolved. Many families became self-

su cient units, producing what they could to meet consumption needs and trading

any surplus to procure other goods and services. Then, the violent confl ict of 1998-

1999 destroyed much of the production base, damaged infrastructure, overall during

the 1990s riots, the dairy industry has been greatly destroyed (USAID, 2007). A er

this, almost the majority of farms and companies are starting from the fi rst, during

this time, except for the inherited concerns of the past, poor road infrastructure,

lack of technology, budget shortages, and education in this industry have emerged

as additional adventures of today such as competition from imported products,

hygiene standards compliance, lack of guarantee for products sale.

Livestock today is an important factor in developing the country's economy with

the livestock population of 261,689 ca le, 183,584 sheep and 8430 goats. According

to KSA, Agriculture, forestry and fi shing contribute about 10.33 percent of national

GDP, whereas the total value of livestock production for 2015 was 278.9 million which