Olive groves in Albania are planted mainly in hilly and mountainous area, which leads to difficulties in the application of new technologies in harvesting, transport, and processing of the olive fruit. An important characteristic is the genotypic diversity of olive varieties that are highly valued for the acclimatization toward the pedo-climatic conditions. Six regions show a diversity of varieties used for olive oil and table olives.
Elbasani area in the central part of Albania has two ?old varieties? that have shrunk in their numbers in the recent years due to the introduction of foreign cultivars. The project aims at the promotion of these two varieties using a scheme of subsidizing the cost of saplings. A total of 6,000 olive trees will be distributed among the farmers by the project.