In 2024, AZHBR provided money for uncultivated lands with aromatic medicinal plants. If all farmers in this area met the conditions of the Ministry of Agriculture to benefit from the subsidy, the land area would not exceed 5,000 hectares.
Sources for Top Channel say that the AZHBR inspectors presented the same plot as a new land, but that the farmer's name changed time and time again. Using the National Scheme as an instrument, the director of AZHBR, Ardita Kuçi, fictitiously increased the area of ????sage and lavender plots, where 190,353,000 ALL were given to 846 farmers from Malësia e Madhe for 6,345.1 Ha.
"The largest epicenter of BMA cultivation is Malësia e Madhe, Koplik, where 2000-3000 ha are cultivated with sage alone, but in addition to sage we have lavender, trumpet, and oregano, and in total in this area the area with BMA is somewhere around 5000 ha," said the Chairman of the BMA Industry Association, Filip Gjoka.
While for 2025 the map of uncultivated plots was doubled, where for 1,290 applications AZHBR sought to provide money for 11,430.1 ha, but in reality, according to the assessment of the president of the BMA Industry Association, Filip Gjoka, this figure is not even reached in all of Albania.
"All of Albania has over 10,000 thousand hectares ," said Gjoka.
Field data reflects another reality; in these two years, not a single meter more of lavender and sage has been planted.
"In 2024 we were approximately 50 million euros expert, while in 2025 we have +5 and this comes from the depreciation of the euro and the dollar where we increase the price. The amount is almost the same or decreasing due to the lack of subsidies," he says.
The disbursement of 2 million euros for non-existent land was done with the blessing of the director of AZHBR herself, Ardita Kuçi, after her inspectors failed to prevent the falsification of AMTP documents, which in that area is known as a property title.
But Top Channel learns that the heads of the Administrative Units of Malesia e Madhe, together with inspectors, have attempted once again to increase the area of ??crops on paper. In 2022, out of 908 applications, only 174 farmers benefited from the oil subsidy, after their scheme was discovered in time.
Meanwhile, in the offices of the general directorate of AZHBR, the audit group of the Ministry of Agriculture is investigating the abuse of 2 million euros./ TCH