CASE STUDY
Got Milk! Kosovo and Albania

Each year, Kosovo's dairy farmers face the problem of excess milk production in the summer because of the lactation cycle after cows give birth. Farmers cope by throwing out milk, selling it at below-market prices or slaughtering cows. The result – dairy farmers lose money and then don't have enough cows to meet the higher milk demand in the winter. Yet, across the bor-der in neighboring Kosovo, there is not enough milk to meet demand in the summer, the heavy tourist season. The logical solution is for Kosovo's milk producers to export their product to the south, but there is an impediment – over-valuation of Koso-vo milk by customs officials at the Albanian border, resulting in high import taxes.

USAID stepped in and facilitated negotiations between the Kosovo Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the govern-ment of Albania. USAID documented the Albanian practice of revaluing raw milk from Kosovo at the border. That practice made Kosovo milk exports uncompetitive in the Albanian mar-ket.

The negotiations were successful. Albania removed the arbitrary reference price for all goods coming from Kosovo, resulting in a fair transaction value for Kosovo milk.