Mutual recognition of border documents has been seen as one of the most harmful barriers to trade in the CEFTA region. This is of particular significance when dealing with perishable products. For that reason, the project focused on fruits and vegetables while supporting the CEFTA Parties to develop a framework to address the barrier and establish a protocol for the mutual recognition of procedures and documents in conformity with EU requirements and in support of the implementation of the CEFTA Additional Protocol 5 (AP5), Article 24.  In order to be able to propose options and potential approaches for establishing the protocol, a one-week study visit was carried out by the project team, focusing on the two CEFTA parties, namely Albania and North Macedonia, as selected at the CEFTA meeting of 25 March in Skopje. The products selected at the same meeting for inclusion in the assessment were apple, tomato, cucumber and eggplant. The findings of the missions were presented and discussed with respective SPS and Customs authorities at a workshop held in Tirana in June 2019 Likewise, an initial proposal for facilitating trade in fruits and vegetables in the region was presented. The proposal was further distributed to parties in order to consult internally and provide comments to the proposal which will be discussed in more details.