Area Handbook for Albania Part 19

_Table 11. Livestock in Albania, 1960, 1964-66, and 1970 Plan (in thousands)_

------------------------------------------------------ Plan[*]

1960 1964 1965 1966 1970 ------------------------------------------------------- Horses 49 44 44 44 n.a.

Mules 17 20 20 21 n.a.

Donkeys 57 60 60 60 n.a.

Cattle 420 427 424 427 475 Cows 146 157 156 158 n.a.

Oxen 100 87 n.a. n.a. 139 Buffalo 7 5 5 5 n.a.

Sheep 1,546 1,682 1,637 1,670 1,800 Goats 1,104 1,199 1,175 1,200 1,400 Hogs 130 147 141 142 n.a.

Poultry 1,580 1,671 1,722 1,746 3,000 ------------------------------------------------------- n.a.--not available.

*Fourth Five-Year Plan (1965-70).

Information on livestock numbers is much more sketchy. The dearth of published data and repeated official p.r.o.nouncements indicate unsatisfactory progress in this farm sector, particularly with regard to the high-priority target for cattle raising. An important cause of this lag has been an acknowledged shortage of fodder. Another major reason has been an officially induced transfer of livestock from individual peasant owners.h.i.+p to the collective and state farms, where it is subject to the much-criticized negligent att.i.tude of the peasants toward state and communal property. About 60 percent of the cattle and sheep and 85 percent of the hogs were kept on state and collective farms in 1969, as against only about 36 and 64 percent, respectively, in 1964.

Collective farm managers and local government officials have blamed the fodder shortage on the diversion of pastures and meadows to the production of bread grains. Statistical evidence indicates that the output of feed grains declined by about 40 percent from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s but that the loss of fodder from grazing lands and meadows was compensated fourfold through increased production of forage crops.

The validity of the explanation offered by the farm and village officials was vigorously denied in the theoretical monthly journal of the Party's Central Committee, which attributed the fodder shortage to a failure by collective farmers to adopt improved methods of crop production and to exploit all available fodder resources. In January 1970 all basic Party organizations in farming areas were urged to eliminate distrust and every conservative idea and harmful tendency that stood in the way of the rapid development of cattle raising and to see to it that the existing gap between the collective farms and private plots was gradually eliminated.

Government efforts to improve livestock breeds and yields through selective breeding, artificial insemination, and better management practices have also been impeded by peasant apathy. Although yields of up to 5,500 pounds of milk per cow were obtained on some state farms in 1966 and yields of about 3,300 pounds to 3,950 pounds on the more efficient lowland collective farms, the average yield of milk per cow on all lowland collective farms in that year was only about 1,750 to 2,200 pounds, and a large number of upland farms obtained even less.

The latest available official Albanian livestock statistics are for the year 1964. Data for 1965 and 1966 have been published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The Fourth Five-Year Plan indicates the numbers planned for some of the livestock categories in 1970 through percentage increases expected to be attained over the numbers in 1965. In the case of cattle, the largest increase by far has been planned for draft oxen--60 percent as against only 12 percent for all cattle--in an effort to reduce a draft power shortage.

This increase would inevitably be at the expense of the growth in the numbers of cows and young stock.

The growth of productive livestock herds, excluding draft animals, lagged very substantially in relation to the increase in population, at least through 1966. This has entailed a significant worsening of the initially very meager supply of livestock products. According to estimates published by the FAO, total annual meat production, including all types of meat in terms of carca.s.s weight but excluding edible offals, increased from an average of 40,000 tons in the 1952-56 period to 50,000 tons in 1967. The output in 1967 implies a per capita daily meat availability of only about 2.5 ounces, including bones. A similar situation prevailed with regard to dairy and poultry products because there were only about 75 low-production cows per 1,000 population and one head of inferior poultry per capita.

Total agricultural production, which was planned to increase at an average annual rate of 11.5 percent or from 71 to 76 percent for the five-year plan period as a whole, consistently fell short of the targets in the 1966-69 period and was not likely to attain the 17-percent increase planned for 1970. Thus, for instance, the actual output increase achieved in 1969 was only about 10 percent as against a planned rise of 22.1 percent and in 1968, similarly, about 1.6 as against 12 percent.

This persistent lag in farm output has been extensively and publicly discussed by the leaders.h.i.+p, which is intent on raising the general level of performance in agriculture and ensuring an adequate domestic supply of food products. Although some blame has been attached to unfavorable weather conditions, the lag has been ascribed primarily to the reluctance of peasants to adopt modern production techniques, poor farm management, insufficient effort to use available resources to best advantage, widespread indifference and negligence, and an excessive preoccupation with personal interests leading to an irresponsible att.i.tude toward work in the collective sector. These shortcomings were said to exist not only among the peasantry at large but also among Communists, who should be serving as models of responsible behavior. The basic reason that clearly emerges from public discussion is a widespread opposition of peasants to the collectivization of farms and an a.s.sociated tendency to devote their best efforts to the cultivation of their own private plots.

Impressive evidence on this point is provided by official production statistics for 1964, the latest available on this subject. These data show that output per acre on the small private plots of collective farmers and state farm workers was four times larger than output on state farms and six times larger than that on collective farms.

Const.i.tuting only 6 percent of the cultivated land, the private plots produced 23 percent of the total farm output. Nevertheless, the leaders.h.i.+p has publicly credited the advance in agricultural production to the collectivization of farms.

In 1967 the government proceeded to reduce the size of the private plots, with a view to their eventual elimination, both for ideological reasons and as a means of forcing peasants to devote greater efforts to work on collectivized land. Subsequent steps were taken to transfer to collective owners.h.i.+p some of the livestock allotted to the farm families by the collective farm statute.

This action did not measurably improve agricultural performance.

Shortfalls in the production of several important crops, including cotton, tobacco, and rice, were admitted to have occurred both in 1968 and 1969, and the situation in the livestock sector continued to be unsatisfactory. A scaling down of the original production goal for 1970 could therefore not be avoided. The farm output target set by the annual plan for 1970 was 12.5 percent below the minimum and 15 percent below the maximum five-year plan figures for the same year.

INDUSTRY

A few primitive plants producing consumer goods had been built before World War II, but industrial development began only in 1949, when construction was undertaken of a 50,000-kilowatt hydroelectric power station, a textile mill capable of producing 22 million yards of cloth per year, and a sugar mill with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons of sugar. Industrial construction continued under the first and second five-year plans (1951-55 and 1956-60, respectively) during the 1950s, with substantial financial and technical a.s.sistance from the Soviet Union. This development was temporarily interrupted in the wake of the political break with the Soviet Union in 1961 but was soon resumed with aid from Communist China (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political System). The interruption was said by the Albanian leaders.h.i.+p to have r.e.t.a.r.ded industrial growth by three years. Disinterested foreign observers, however, reported that the equipment acquired with the aid of Communist China was better suited to the needs of the country and of better quality than that supplied by the Soviet Union.

Among the major industrial projects completed or under construction in 1970 with the a.s.sistance of Communist Chinese technicians were: copper, chromium, and iron-nickel mines; an oil refinery at Fier with an annual capacity of 500,000 tons of crude oil, a 225,000-kilowatt hydroelectric power station at Vau i Dejes on the Drin River; a 100,000-kilowatt capacity of 500,000 tons of crude oil; a 225,000-kilowatt/thermal power-plant at Fier; a copper-ore dressing installation and a copper-wire drawing mill; a steel-rolling mill at Elbasan; cement mills at Elbasan and Kruje; large textile combines at Tirana and Berat; and a knit goods factory at Korce.

Of special benefit to agriculture was the construction of a nitrate fertilizer plant at Fier, a superphosphate plant at Lac, and a plant for the manufacture of tractor spare parts at Tirana. A variety of smaller plants were also built for the production of such items as caustic soda, sulfuric acid, rubber products, electrical equipment and light bulbs, footwear, and vegetable oils.

Along with the construction of technologically up-to-date plants, others were built with outdated technology through the lack of construction experience or knowledge of more advanced methods. At the same time, obsolete plants and workshops remained in use. In 1969 these technologically backward plants produced less than half the total output but employed more than half the industrial labor force.

Available information on the structure of industry is ambiguous because of uncertainties regarding the pricing methods underlying the relevant data. According to the official figures for 1967 based on 1966 prices, the food industry accounted for nearly one-third and light industry for almost one-fourth of the total industrial output. The balance of 44 percent was produced by some fourteen or more industry branches, the relative shares of which ranged from 8.0 percent for metalworking and for timber and wood processing to 0.3 percent for the bitumen industry.

As a group, six industry branches engaged in oil production and mining contributed about 15 percent of the output. The building materials industry accounted for 5 percent and electric power production, for not quite 4 percent.

The relations.h.i.+p between the output of capital goods and that of consumer goods is equally ambiguous. The share of capital goods in the output of 1968 was officially reported as 55.5 percent, as against 44.5 percent for consumer goods. The apparent discrepancy between the reported shares in total output of consumer goods as compared with the production of the light and food industries may be explained, in part, by the fact that a portion of these industries' output is usually included among capital goods as, for instance, textiles used by the clothing industry and leather used by the shoe industry.

Foreign observers have reported the country's industry to be poorly balanced not only in a technical sense but also in terms of essential domestic needs and the availability of foreign outlets for its products.

The metalworking industry, for example, which is limited to the production of automotive and industrial spare parts, apart from a few types of simple agricultural equipment and household utensils, cannot even ensure the maintenance of the existing machinery inventory because it is able to supply only about 60 to 70 percent of the country's needs.

Industrial production is substantially oriented toward capital goods and exports, whereas the manufacture of products for domestic consumption continues to be severely restricted.

The leaders.h.i.+p is aware of industry's structural shortcomings and is intent on overcoming them through a program involving the reconstruction and modernization of old plants and the concentration of small shops into larger, more efficient specialized units. Progress in this direction, however, has been hampered by inadequate investment resources and by a reluctance of managers and workers to cooperate with this program. It has also been handicapped by a lack of effective planning and by an inability to organize comprehensive studies that would provide a basis for both overall and detailed plans.

Nevertheless, a few plants for the manufacture of machine spare parts and of simple equipment were formed through the concentration of milling machines previously installed in maintenance shops of various enterprises, and a step toward the consolidation of small artisan shops was taken in May 1969 by transforming artisans' cooperatives into state enterprises.

Owing to the lack of prior industrial experience by both managers and labor, industry also suffers from poor organization of production and of the material supply, low labor productivity, and generally inferior quality of product. Extensive discussion of these problems in the official press indicates that government efforts toward reducing the magnitude of these problems are slow in bearing fruit, despite programs for vocational training and intensive campaigns of political indoctrination aimed at generating productive enthusiasm and innovative initiative among workers and managers. A major campaign is being waged to eradicate artisan traditions and to replace them with industrial production line methods. The basic difficulty in achieving greater efficiency lies in the continuing severe shortage of skilled manpower and of personnel with adequate training in the economics and mechanics of industrial production.

Because of the underlying pricing methods, officially reported data on total industrial production in value terms overstate the actual rate of growth attained. Substantial industrial progress is, nevertheless, indicated by physical production data for a number of commodities (see table 12). Since production had started from nothing or from very low levels in the early post-World War II years, the rates of growth in output were substantially higher during the 1950s than in the following decade.

The highest rates of increase during the 1960s, ranging from five to three times the initial volume, were achieved in the production of copper, electric power, and cement. Increases of from 69 to 80 percent were attained for coal, oil, and iron-nickel ore. Production of textiles and footwear grew by more than half, and that of knitwear more than doubled. A substantial advance was also made by the food-processing industry. Least progress was made in the production of cigarettes and bricks--only about 6 to 7 percent--and the output of timber actually declined from 6 million to 5 million cubic feet. Most of the mining output and a substantial share of the food industry production are exported.

Rapid electrification of the country has been a major goal of the leaders.h.i.+p. Electrification is intended to meet the needs of industrial development and help attain a higher standard of living in rural areas.

A crash program has been underway to bring electric power to every village, even in the remotest areas. This project was originally scheduled to be completed in 1985, but the date has been advanced to November 8, 1971, the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the ruling Albanian Workers' Party. The program is being carried out by the prevailing method of ma.s.s mobilization for voluntary work.

Installed capacity in 1969 was reported to be 210,000 kilowatts, of which 128,000 kilowatts were in thermal powerplants and 82,000 kilowatts in hydroelectric power stations. This capacity reflected a fourfold increase since 1960, a large part of which was accounted for by a single thermal plant of 100,000-kilowatt capacity put into operation in late 1969. The country's hydroelectric power potential has been estimated by Albanian technicians as roughly 3 billion kilowatt-hours per year, half of which is represented by the Drin River. Development of this potential has barely begun. The first major plant on the Drin with a capacity of 225,000 kilowatts is scheduled for completion at Vau i Dejes in 1971, and a second station on that river with a capacity of 400,000 kilowatts is to be built at Fierze during the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1971-75).

_Table 12. Industrial Production in Albania, 1960 and 1964-69_

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commodity Units 1960 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Electric power million kilowatt-hours 194 288 322 433 589 712 n.a.

Crude oil thousand metric tons 728 764 822 887 984 1,137 1,310

Petroleum products do. 369 476 509 590 692 n.a. n.a.

Coal do. 291 292 331 393 434 491 n.a.

Chrome ore do. 289 307 311 302 327 369 n.a.

Copper ore do. 82 145 219 228 267 304 326

Blister copper do. 1 2 4 5 5 n.a. n.a.

Iron-nickel ore do. 255 351 395 395 403 440 n.a.

Cement do. 73 127 134 139 221 n.a. n.a.

Bricks million units 130 121 112 106 139 n.a. n.a.

Ginned cotton thousand metric tons 7 9 8 9 9 n.a. n.a.

Textiles million yards 28 33 33 37 44 n.a. n.a.

Cotton do. 27 31 ... ... ... n.a. n.a.