During 2019, Italy remained Albania’s chief trade partner. Though there was a slight drop in both, 48% of Albania’s exports went to Italy, and 25% of its imports came from there.
Overall, exports fell by 3.8% during 2019, whereas imports increased by 1.2%.
INSTAT’s report on foreign trade shows that Albania’s second and third largest export partners were Kosovo at 10% (an increase of 10% from 2018), and Spain at 8% (a 1.4% drop from 2018). Meanwhile, 10% of its imported goods come from Turkey (a 14% increase compared to 2018) and 9% come from China (an 11% increase from 2018).
Though exports towards the EU still make up the stark majority (77%) of Albania’s total exports, there was a 3.4% drop during 2019. Similarly, imports from the EU consisted in 58% of the country’s total imported goods, seeing a 2.9% decrease from 2018.
Exports towards Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) countries rose by 1.1%, making up 17% of the total exports, whereas imports from these countries fell by 1.3%, to make up 7% of the total imports.
The number of import and export companies increased by 5% during 2019, with about 47% of them being microenterprises. Nonetheless, 61% of the total exports were done by the 50 largest companies, and 56% of the imports were done by the 100 largest companies.
The most exported product categories were “leather processing products,” and “clothing” (24%), as well as “base metal products” (13%). The most imported product categories consisted in “food products” (11%) and “lignite and refined oil by-products” (9%).
