Kosovo's Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Mimoza Kusari Lila, has made a strong denunciation of the fuel market in Albania. During an interview with Kosovo media, Kusari stated that the fuel market in Albania is closed and dictates higher prices than other countries.
"There are three main countries from which oil enters Kosovo. It is Albania, to the greatest extent, 50 or 60 percent, it is Greece and North Macedonia. That is, Albania from Saudi Arabia that comes and is unloaded at the Port of Durrës, while Greece and Macedonia mainly from their refineries. Now what we have noticed in recent days, now that we make a weighted average of liters and price is that the price from Greece and North Macedonia comes lower, in some cases 10 to 13 cents lower than the price from Albania. It means in most cases when we import oil derivatives from Albania we have a price that increases the weighted average," said Kusari Lila.
The head of the industry said that the Kosovo government has requested explanations from the authorities in Albania as to why this situation is occurring.
"When we initially asked why this was happening, the first interpretations from the sector were that it was because of taxes and I knew that this could not be true since taxes do not apply to goods that are in transit. Therefore, we have directly communicated with the authorities in Albania, from customs to the Ministry of Economy, responsible for the port, and they are conducting their own analysis and within a day or two at the latest we will have the assessment from Albania," added Kusari Lila.
But she did not hesitate to give her own answer as to why the price of fuel from Albania is higher.
"It seems that there is a clear concentration situation there. There are one or two importers, two from Albania, who import and it may be that this is done intentionally, this slightly higher price than in Greece and North Macedonia. I am always talking about imports, I am not talking about the retail price that occurs at the pumps or points of sale there," Lila concluded.
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