SHEEP WOOL PRODUCTION IN ALBANIA
Lumturi Papa1, Kristaq Kume2
1Animal Production Department, Agricultural University, Tirana, Albania
2National Coordinator of Farm Animal Genetic Resources, Albania
lumturupapa@yahoo.com // kkume@abcom-al.com
Actually, 1853 thousand sheep (1378 thousand milked sheep) are farmed in Albania. About 28 % of the sheep population are the Tsygaia breed and its crossbreeds, 9.2 % are the Merino breed and its crossbreeds, 12 % are cross¬breeds with other different imported breeds, local sheep named Rrecka present about 23 % of the total sheep popula¬tion and other autochthonous sheep breeds, like Ruda, Bardhoke, Shkodrane, Baca – located in the North and North East/West, and Syka of Mati, Lara of Polisit in central regions of Albania consist of 27.5 %. The imported breeds like Il de France, Chios, Awasi constitute about 0.3 %. The annual sheep wool production evaluates about 3.8 thousand ton. The structure of wool quality is 15.7 % thin wool (merinos and their crosses), 27.1 % half thin wool (Ruda, Tsi¬gaia and their crosses) and 57.2 % harsh wool (local breeds). The most part of wool produced by local sheep breeds is the coarse type. Only the wool of the Ruda sheep breed is of the half thin type, with 12–14 cm hair length and 30–33 micron diameter of hair. Most of the Albanian wool is sold for export very cheaply, direct after shearing (not graded, not washed), some is simply incinerated. The farmers get a smaller part of their own wool carded. Afterwards it is hand spun and used for weaving or knitting. The coarse wool is used for kelims and carpets. The finer wool is used for knitting. In Albania it is a tradition carding, dyeing, hand spinning, weaving and knitting the wool to be done in small enterprises and home conditions. The elder generation knows how to handle the wool, but it is a dwin¬dling tradition. Only a small and decreasing market for traditional wool products, such as traditional Albanian hats, kelims and knotted carpets exists. The support of farmers community to build up a market for modern wool produc¬tion as small or medium scale enterprises and home production, then selling the products from specialized shops in bigger towns, and especially for the bigger enterprises, to end up with export is one of the important objectives of the Albanian National Action Plan for conservation and sustainable economic use of FAnGR. According to the National Action Plan to develop wool processing into finished end-products for sale, is necessary to look into small issues as sheep breeding at a farm level, development of breeding strategies, training farmers in sheep husbandry practices, grading the wool, scouring the wool, support to SMEs working with wool processing, training men/women in wool processing, design of products, marketing and bookkeeping.
Keywords: sheep; wool processing; marketing
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