9 minutes agoProducers Association requires American gas to be an alternative to power supply
Periskopi(2 hours ago)
(2 hours ago)The head of the Association of Producers of Kosovo, Consumption Ajvazi, has said businesses in Kosovo are constantly facing challenges of different natures, citing the energy crisis, rising prices and difficulties in ensuring competitiveness in foreign markets.
However, the main challenge, according to Ajvaz, remains the stable power supply, as cuts are affecting production processes and increasing costs. As a result, he has demanded that American gas be an alternative to power supply.
One of the main challenges we are facing in recent times is the sustained security of electricity, where some of the businesses have power outages, and this normally affects production processes, increasing costs. And what we're looking for is to create alternatives to electricity supply, as is the case through the gas pipeline from Skopje, and the use of American gas”, Ajvazi said.
Ajvazi has declared that last year's challenge was also the release into the free electricity market, while this year's impact has had price hikes as a result of the Middle East war.
“Yes, businesses are constantly facing problems, i.e. different natures. Last year we have had the problem of electricity, of emerging into the free electricity market, this year we have the issue of rising prices because of Iran's war. I mean, we have continuous challenges, but normally we're trying to keep up with growing production in this country”, Ajvazi said.
He stressed that local producers are constantly working on expanding production capacities and increasing the number of employees.
According to him, local products have already penetrated the European market thanks to international standards, while institutional support would be welcome to maintain competitiveness.
Well, our products are certified by international standards and have penetrated the European market. And competitiveness is what it has to do with the price -- that is, in cases where we have lower prices and factors that the government can help, whether directly or indirectly. She is welcome in order not to lose the external market”, Ajvazi told Online Economy.
Asked about concrete measures taken by the institutions, he briefly said he has not seen anything concrete.
Ajvazi estimated that Kosovo has great potential for expanding production and byproductal processing, based on the high level of imports.
“If we on the main basis have import, from import data we see that there is a huge possibility of expanding production and other byproducts”, Ajvazi added.
