Agri-food at Balkan Summit 2026: from Balkan soil to global shelves
Three agriculture ministries and the producers who export from the region, on scale, greenhouses and food processing.
Agri-food closed the sector programme on Tuesday 20 October, and it was the only sector where matchmaking came first: meetings started at 11:15, before the plenary.
Session 7, “From Balkan Soil to Global Shelves: Agriculture, Agtech & Food Processing at Scale”, met in the Beethoven Hall at 13:30. It brought the three agriculture ministries to one stage: Armend Muja, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development of Kosovo; Albrim Hoxha, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy of North Macedonia; and Ilir Ajdini, representing Albania's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Sara Zotaj, Head of the Lead and Aftercare Sector at AIDA, Albania's investment and development agency, moderated.
The discussion centred on production at scale: large-scale agriculture and greenhouse development, food and beverage processing, and eco-rural and coastal concessions. Deputy Minister Hoxha used the session to set out North Macedonia's perspective for investors.
In the Strauss Hall, the agri-food panel, “Balkan Soil to EMENA Shelves: Industrial Agri, Greenhouses & Food Processing”, heard from the companies already selling abroad. On the panel were Rabie Simnica, Board Member of Kosmonte Foods; Eno Jegeni, Owner and CEO of Vegetal Export, Albania; and Arif Kastrati, Blueberry Plantation Manager at Berrykode. Fatmir Selimi, Executive Director of AgroDev, moderated.
Between them, the two sessions covered the whole chain: the land and concessions governments can offer, and the processing, cold chain and buyers that turn a harvest into an export.
Balkan Summit 2026 took place in Prishtina from 18 to 21 October 2026, at the Emerald Hotel.