A complete value chain of traditional Albanian

Name and address of the organization: ARTAN BALAS - Cerkovine, Vlore Country and region: , Vlora Region Contact person: Artan Bala Tel./Mobile: +355 69 29 55 247 E-mail: [email protected]

1) Brief description ARTAN BALAS was created in 2006 as a wine producing company. Its activities are related with: 1. Production of in the owned and in 3 rented hectares of land, and buying of grapes from local farmers. 2. Processing of grapes and wine production. Specifically, ARTAN BALAS produces: :  Red wine - Vlosh 4%  Red wine - 35%  Red Wine - 6%  Red wine - Kabernet 35%  Others – 10 % :  White wine - White Square 70%  Others – 30 % For its productions, ARTAN BALAS uses certified seedlings from the Albanian agency for native seeds conservation of , and cultivates 60.000 saplings per year (mostly planted trees, but also grafts). ARTAN BALAS is strongly working on its marketing techniques, in order to improve them and develop a label to be used on products and for products launch campaigns. An important, preliminary part of this process is the development of a market study on wine production in Albania and its key trends. Mr. Artan Bala has beenCopy trained in Italy (he spent 10 years inAuleda Friuli) in how to plant, cultivate and , and in the distillation and fermentation processes of wine. Mr.Bala has a complete value chain of wine production , he start from qualities certified Albanian seedlings, he has the vinery with this cultivars and produce in traditionally way the Albanian wine, he do the stage of wine in barrels of wood starts from 2 until 5 years, he package the wine in bottles with his label and finally he sell the wine in some of best restaurants in Tirana and Vlora city. He is indentify in the market and the customer know where can find this guaranty and good wine.

2) Objectives of the best practices  Production of organic autochthon grape saplings for the local market.  Production of high-quality Albanian wine.  Promotion of the product at local, national and international level. 3) Who is going to use the best practices? ARTAN BALAS

4) Benefits (for the final user and the community, if applicable)  Grape producers in Vlora region can improve the quality of their productions and sell them to this demanding, but serious buyer.  , especially (but not exclusively) in Vlora region, can sell high-quality products.  Customers (at local, national, international level) can buy high-quality .

5) Expected results and indicators to measure success  Use of organic material in the grape production (manure).  Cultivation of native seedlings.  Limited and controlled use of pesticides.  High quality of the final product.  Very good fermentation and distillation technology.  Use of steel equipment and of wood barrels for storage.

6) Possibility of transferring the best practice The small number of autochthon grape plantations impedes a large production of “native” wine in Vlora region. Moreover, in the area most of wine producers directly sell their products and don’t have the possibility of storing the wine for a long period of time: thus, their products don’t meet the high-quality standards they could otherwise reach. The best practice here presented could be used by other producers for enlarging and improving their production of autochthon organic grape, thus being able to produce more high-quality wine.

7) Photo (attachments) Copy Auleda