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Albania -- Marime Korbi lives in Kukes, Albania, and is the owner of the Ervin company, which specializes in the production of high quality organic alcoholic and fruit drinks. Her business emerged intact from the transition from the socialist system, although it was ill prepared to enter a competitive market with its low output and antiquated production technology. Now Ervin is a flourishing producer of fruit juices and high quality raki, a traditional alcoholic drink made from local plums and grapes. It is the only producer of its kind in the north-east of the country.

Two years ago in Ure e Shtrentje, a poor village in northern Albania, Oxfam started to train a group of women (and later, men) in bee keeping. Initially, Oxfam gave one beehive to each of the members, as well as protective clothing, and drugs for the bees.

Since then, the beekeeping scheme has worked well. All the bees are alive and some of the first beehives have been used to start off one or two new beehives. So far the honey has been used as food for the families and it is also fed back to the bees during wintertime to help them multiply. Soon, the villagers hope to sell the honey for profit.

“We each sold our milk separately to local businessmen who were paying very low prices ... Now we realized that by working together and following good management practices, we could produce better quality milk and sell it for much more.”

At the beginning of October when the harvest season was drawing to close, Oxfam in Albania hosted a trade fair giving farmers and producers a chance to market their goods in the capital city Tirana.

200 producers, some of whom made the journey from remote mountain villages, brought their wares to the two-day fair, which was held in the capital's main square, Skenderbeg square.

Thousands of shoppers attended - both individual customers and wholesalers like Tirana-based restaurant and shop owners, some hoping to sign contracts with rural producers.

Abdulla has been growing beans for many years and produces an average of 500 kg beans per year – six different varieties in all. He grows vegetables as well, which he sells in the city market, but it's not easy because the city is 25km away and transport costs so much.

Ferdinand Gjata began his business after the communist regime in Albania fell in 1991. The dairy industry was non-existent then with individual farmers processing their own products and selling only at the local level. Ferdinand was one of the first dairy processors to sign up with USAID's Land O' Lakes Good Management Practices program. Ferdinand, along with many others throughout Albania, have benefited from USAID's assistance. With improved sanitation and hygiene conditions, they are consistently producing high quality products and are able to maintain a profit level above their expectations.

It was a cold winter in 1993 when Drita Mema and her husband decided to leave their village in Kukes, northern Albania, and seek another place to live, hoping to find a better life for their children. After the collapse of the Communist regime in 1991, state jobs had evaporated, and it was impossible to earn a living in the isolated north.