There have been mussel farmers here for more than 30 years. The conditions in the lagoon are ideal. In the brackish water of the lagoon, salt and fresh water are exchanged every 6 hours due to the tides. This regular water exchange is poisonous for bacteria, which mussel farmers in other places often have to contend with.
The mussels hang on lines around 100 m long, so-called mussel socks, and they produce enormous numbers of offspring. A single mussel produces 1000 to 2000 larvae. After 2 - 3 years in the water, they can be harvested. Back on land, the mussels are processed directly in the cold store - a modern facility from Italy.
From 41 kg of harvested mussels, around 20 kg of mussels are sorted out in the shaking machine for sale. For this, the mussel farmer receives the equivalent of 15 euros - his daily income.
In the last 4 years of communism, the mussel farmers were able to export their mussels to Italy. The mussels are of very high quality. But Albania is not part of the EU (European Union) and this puts farmers at a disadvantage because of food safety regulations. This is bad because the really very good mussels would have a real chance on the European market. If the European market were available, 500-600 new jobs could be created here immediately, because at the moment we only produce a fraction of what would be possible.