ALB
ENG
By Eduard Zaloshnja
To calculate incomes coming from the “export” of cannabis, the official figures from 2014 until 2016 are not sufficient, because according to these figures, police have destroyed 99.99% of the cultivated areas. Meanwhile, we all know that tons and tons of tons of Albanian cannabis have been seized in Italy and Greece during these years.
2013 may serve as the basis to make the abovementioned calculation, because from 320 hectares of cultivated land (reported by the Italian Guardia di Finanza), only 20 hectares were reported destroyed (and these only in the “autonomous region” of Lazarat).
By referring to the average production of cannabis reported by the United Nations Organization (400 kg of dried cannabis per hectare), 120 tons of dried cannabis has been produced in Albania in 2013. Meanwhile, if we refer to the average retail prices with which it is sold in the streets of Italy and Greece (reported by the UNO), the value of this product in its final destination was around 1.25 billion euros.
Based on the information offered by journalist Robert Saviano in his book “ZeroZeroZero”, only 40% of the final value of the production of cannabis remains in the country that produces it–the rest goes in the pockets of “importers” and distribution networks in developed countries. They also go to cover the losses that these rings suffer when police seizes amounts of the drug (on average, 10% of production is seized by police in different countries).
In other words, in 2013, gross revenues for Albanian “exporters” of cannabis were around 500 million euros.
With these revenues, they have covered the cost of cultivation and the costs for the protection of production and transport (mainly through bribes given to police and politicians), keeping the remaining part in their own pockets. There’s no way to know how much this part was, but, according to Saviano, in general, this part accounts for half of the gross revenues made by “exporters”.
To make a comparison, gross revenues from textiles and shoes have been 500 million euros in 2013. Only the “Minerals, fuel and power supply” group has exceeded the “export” of cannabis with 700 million euros worth of revenues (in the following years, world demand for these products has dropped significantly-their exports have been halved).
Being one of the most important products of the Albanian “export”, the fight that was done to cannabis in the current season of cultivation makes up for a macro-economic problem for Albania, even more, when “Minerals, fuel and power supply” group has seen a 50% decline in revenues for 2013.
But, the sector of textile and shoes offers hope, because in 2016, exports of this sector amounted to 760 million euros compared to 500 million in 2013. A tax stimulus of this sector could boost employment and incomes from export and these incomes would need to make up for the incomes that we “lose” as a result of the fight against cannabis…
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
