During the past year, Kosovo has changed its trading partners. Since mid-2023, Albania has taken the lead, followed by North Macedonia.
Serbia has reduced imports by around 50%. The decline in imports from the northern neighbor was dictated by security measures imposed by the government in June of last year.
Serbian products lost their dominance in the Kosovo market also at the beginning of this year.
While in 2022, Serbia was the leading trading partner among CEFTA countries, security measures imposed by the government in June 2023 have replaced it with Albania and North Macedonia.
The GAP Institute has shown that imports from Serbia alone decreased by 47% last year. In contrast, imports from Albania increased by 28%.
There has also been an increase in imports from Germany, China, and India.
Lulzim Rafuna, chairman of the Economic Chamber, stated in a media declaration that local businesses continued to import products from the same brands but represented in other regional states.
“It is known that many companies producing in Serbia have redirected their Kosovo partners to buy goods from companies that are subsidiaries in North Macedonia, due to government measures.”
Rafuna emphasized that despite changing partner countries, there has been no increase in prices for consumers.
“Some of the partners have taken over to cover the transportation costs. It is known that one of the reasons we dealt with Serbia was because of the proximity we had, but on the other hand, we should not forget that most companies in Serbia come from Germany, followed by manufacturing companies, then Italians, American companies, so the vast majority are foreign companies that produce and export from Serbia to Kosovo.”
In recent years, Kosovo has seen an increase in imports from Albania. According to Customs data, goods worth 255 million euros were imported in 2022, while last year, around 326 million euros were imported.
To enhance trade cooperation between these two countries, the Economic Chamber has also recommended transitioning to a unified value-added tax system.
“With Albania, we need to take measures for our two governments to move to another level of cooperation, to eliminate some administrative and non-administrative barriers that are affecting business costs and transportation time for goods.”
According to GAP Institute data, there has been an increase in imports from India during 2023, by 529%.
From 46 million euros, the value of imported goods in 2022, this value increased to over 292 million euros last year. There has also been an increase in imports from Germany by 23%, or 140 million euros more, as well as from China by 19%, meaning that Chinese goods worth 102 million euros more entered the Kosovo market.
