Korce County

Korçë County operates as a seed bank for Albanian agriculture and an emerging wine producer leveraging extreme elevation. The plateau surrounding Korçë city has been continuously farmed for 4,500 years, making it what researchers call 'the last stronghold' for locally adapted crop landraces. Varieties like Korçë black popcorn and Prespë sweetcorn exist nowhere else, genetic resources that could prove valuable as climate change forces agricultural adaptation.

Wine production at near-extreme altitude (vineyards reach 900 meters) demonstrates niche construction through challenging conditions. Debina, a white grape variety with pronounced acidity, thrives where temperature swings between 40°C days and cool nights preserve freshness. The Trans Adriatic Pipeline, operational since 2020, crosses the county at Bilisht on the Greek border—infrastructure that accidentally boosted connectivity while primarily serving energy transport.

Bordering both Greece and North Macedonia, Korçë benefits from cross-border trade and Greek investment, a form of economic mutualism. The locally famous Birra Korça provides manufacturing employment, while low unemployment compared to other Albanian counties suggests economic stability. This diversity—agriculture, beverages, cross-border commerce, emerging energy infrastructure—creates portfolio effects similar to diversified ecosystems. If one sector struggles, others compensate. Albania's largest county by area (3,711 km²) thus demonstrates how geographic scale enables niche partitioning.