Kosovo products on European markets

The SAA, like the first contractual agreement between Kosovo and the European Union, has entered into force on April 1st 2016. This agreement opened the way for Kosovo businesses, in particular those producers for active participation in the 500 million market.

Some of the production businesses in Kosovo, which were only present on the European market even before the signing of this agreement, managed to expand to markets in other European Union countries, and some continue to preserve only the markets they had before the SAA.

Teuta Kursumlija, sales manager at the company Stone Castle) in Rahovec, the company that deals with the production of grapes and alcoholic beverages, tells Radio Free Europe that the MSA has had no major effect on its expansion on European markets.

It tells of a major competition on the European market and the difficulties of penetration on this market.

“We have exported to the EU market even before the SAA, both in Croatia, Switzerland and Germany, as well as in the English market we have been at a time, export to Norway and are in question for Finland. The SAA is not that it has had any effect on export growth. The European Union would have to help Kosovo promote products on behalf of Kosovo, since as Kosovo, we are not so well-known for production, it takes a larger campaign”.

The “is unknown to all that Kosovo produces wine and the first job we have to do as a company, we need to show you the tradition that we have in grape processing and wine production. Competition is extremely large and powerful on the European market. The producers of these states have the huge support of the state in subsidies for it, and they are more competitive, while we as companies do not have that support”, she says.

Shaqir Palushi, owner of the company for production of non-alcohol and energy beverages, “Frutex”, tells Radio Free Europe that the SAA is an agreement that easier enabled the extension of products from Kosovo to the European market.

Competition on the European market, Palushi adds, is big enough and is a challenge for producers from Kosovo, but, according to him, there are Kosovo citizens living in these countries and buying products “Made in Kosova”.

Our <x0-company, even prior to the SAA's entry into force, has had a pronounced export to the European market, but with the entry into force of this agreement conditions and relief opportunities to export to a market of 500 million people, the MSA is a gateway. With our products we are in many countries like Slovenia, Switzerland, Belgium, Great Britain and many other countries, while with the entry into the SAA we have managed to infiltrate France and Hungary”, Palushi says.

As for the Palushi facilities, it is easier to infiltrate the European market than in regional ones.

“It is easier to infiltrate with a product in countries of the European Union than in Macedonia, Montenegro or Serbia”, he says.

Producers in Kosovo have consistently stressed that they face numerous problems such as higher taxes on increased value, non-legal economy, difficult financing for businesses, high interest rates, energy instability, non-equal competition.

Kosovo continues to have a non-competitive production industry. High trade deficit poses an important challenge for Kosovo's economy.

Export contributions to the trade volume, according to data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, annually totals around 380m euros, while importing over 3 billion euros.