Policy Note on Strengthening Albania's Trade Competitiveness

As a small transition economy, Albania has achieved significant progress, and the average year-to-year growth rate of trade from 2000 to 2017 has outperformed the world average reaching almost eleven percent. Yet, Albanian exports are very concentrated in terms of market destinations and product varieties. Green shoots in a range of export industries illustrate that Albania has the potential to further leverage international trade. Despite its small size, Albania has become one of the top twenty exporters of tomatoes in the world, and one of the most attracting touristic destinations in Europe. However, the price gap it receives on exported tomatoes compared to competitors is still significant, which points towards unexploited potential. Adopting the necessary measures to close this price gap will have a great impact for the tomato producers and exporters. Future work on trade competitiveness will build and expand on these dimensions using firm level data, and input-output data for a deeper understanding of Albanian insertion in global value chains (GVCs)