particularly highways within its borders and connecting the country to its neighbours. Once there is evidence of significant progress on this front, the country's chances of acceptance into the EU should improve. Discussions took place during 2015 to secure funding to do so. By 2016, China became one of the major investors in Albania having purchased drilling rights to the oil fields of Patos-Marinzë and Kuçovë (from a Canadian company) and Tirana International Airport SHPK. China Everbright and Friedmann Pacific Asset Management will operate the airport until 2025. As of March 2016, China was the country's main trading partner, with 7.7% of the country's total international trade; that is far more than the trade with Greece and Turkey. A 2018 analysis of six key categories indicated that Albania continues to experience infrastructure problems that present challenges to businesses and further economic opportunities. Sectors Primary sector During the communist regime, Albania's agriculture was heavily centralised integrated with agriculture-related industries, and state-run. Today, agriculture in Albania employs 47.8% of the population and about 24.31% of the land is used for agricultural purposes. Agriculture contributes to 18.9% of the country's GDP. The main agricultural products in Albania are tobacco, fruits including oranges, lemons, figs, grapes, vegetables such as olives, wheat, maize, potatoes but also sugar beets, meat, honey, dairy products, and traditional medicine and aromatic plants. Albanian wine is characterised by its unique sweetness and indigenous varieties. It has one of Europe's longest histories of viticulture. Albania produced an estimated 17,500 tonnes of wine in 2009. During communism, the production area expanded to some . Today's Albania region was one of the few places where the vine was naturally grown during the ice age. The oldest found seeds in the region are 40,000 to 60,000 years old. Ancient Roman writer Pliny describes Illyrian wine as "very sweet or luscious" and refers to it as "taking the third rank among all the wines". Albanian families are traditionally known to grow grapes in their gardens for producing wine and Rakia. Albania produced in 2018: 391 thousand tons of maize; 288 thousand tons of tomato; 254 thousand tons of potato; 240 thousand tons of wheat; 239 thousand tons of watermelon; 184 thousand tons of grape; 120 thousand tons of cucumber; 117 thousand tons of olive; 108 thousand tons of apple; 100 thousand tons of onion; 81 thousand tons of bell pepper; In addition to smaller productions