Maltese farmers fear farming could become a hobby

Agriculture in Malta is dying a slow death, with the average age of farmers now being 55.

It is a woeful assessment for such a vital, if embattled, sector of Maltese life and industry. “If we lose our farmers,” says one stakeholder recently consulted in a study on the Maltese food chain, “we lose those people who are on a day-to-day basis in the countryside, protecting it. We won’t have people producing local vegetables and fruit.”

Away from the parched fields of the declining Maltese countryside, the island’s coastline’s skyline is pockmarked by rising towers. These milestones of Malta’s newfound real estate wealth is the brusque flipside of the island’s shrinking fishing and agriculture industries – farming contributes less than 2% of gross domestic product, even though its value goes beyond the measure of GDP. 

In a new report by Friends of the Earth Malta on the local food chain, stakeholders say they fear Malta is now becoming completely dependent on foreign imports. Gone is a consumer’s concern for the quality of the local product thanks to cheaper imports. 

“Unless consumers and policy-makers realise that we are in a dire situation, unless something drastic is done, agriculture as we know it will disintegrate into a hobby sector,” says one agricultural expert quoted in the FOE report. The problem is that not many young people are taking up the profession, and those who do face many challenges.FOE says that two of the main issues for young farmers are access to land and high investment costs. 

“Unless young farmers have access to fields already, for example, inherited through their family, they are faced with high costs for the procurement of land,” says researcher Suzanne Maas.

A plot of 1 tumolo (1,124 sq.m or 0.1 hectare) costs approximately €20,000-€40,000 but a profitable agricultural business requires a much bigger plot of land than that. Adding to the land cost is the spend for other equipment: a tractor can cost €40,000 on its own. But while fragmentation of land means smaller fields are often unsuitable to be worked with large machinery, the need for manual labour is itself another challenge.

“The inputs necessary to produce vegetables and fruit, in terms of land, water, fertilizers and labour, come at considerable costs. Yet the local farmer has to keep prices down, hampering his ability to make a profit, in order to remain competitive with imported produce,” Maas says – a reality that also has its origins in Malta’s accession to the European Union. Before 2004, Malta had levies on the importation on food, as well as quotas on the quantity of imported products. When Malta joined the EU, these protective measures disappeared, and farmers and producers were suddenly competing with counterparts across all Europe.

Unless consumers and policy-makers realise that we are in a dire situation, unless something drastic is done, agriculture as we know it, will disintegrate into a hobby sector

A government official quoted in the report says farmers, before EU accession, were given the impression that their products would find new markets beyond the Maltese market, that they would increase sales. The actual reverse happened, Maas says. “They suffered from increased competition from imported produce.”

Up until 2014, Malta still benefitted from financial assistance to cope with the transition, with subsidies on fruits and vineyards. Now within the standard Common Agricultural Policy framework, farmers are adapting to a new reality. 

“Only a handful of stronger farmers manage to apply for and receive EU benefits and funds, many smaller farmers are not coping,” one stakeholder is quoted as saying in the report.

Perhaps in this dismal picture of agriculture’s future, what is missing is a true assessment of the high quality of Maltese produce and the value of farmers to the island and tourism.

Farmers are responsible for maintaining the island’s agricultural landscape as well as producing local delicacies such as sundried tomatoes, capers and ġbejna cheese.

It’s not just a draw for tourists. The food supply is essential to hotels hosting some 2 million visitors a year.

The variety of Maltese produce, for which the sun is an important contributor to its quality, has now been augmented. Farmers have started to produce purple cauliflower and yellow watermelon, or local zucchini.

Seasonality also distinguishes the Maltese farmer from the “high-tech” farming of the north, where greenhouses allow the production of the same produce irrespective of the climate. 

Before EU accession, farmers thought their products would find new markets beyond Malta. The actual reverse happened. They suffered from increased competition from imported produce

Consumer knowledge here comes into play: older generations know that in the beginning of the season, when the product is still in short supply, the price will be high. When the market is flooded with the mature produce, the price drops.

But seasonality is also decreasing as customers are still sourcing products from foreign importers during the rest of the year, which means they do not pay much importance as to whether the product is local or not. One of the stakeholders quoted said they would prefer that “in December we would consume a fresh local orange, and in May a fresh local strawberry and in July a fresh local watermelon” – but customers demand a product to be available all year round, says Maas.

“The younger generation specifically is mentioned as being less aware of the seasonality of products, and used to finding whatever they like, irrespective of the season.”

A case in point is strawberries, which although not local and require intensive watering and pesticide, are still grown in Malta from March to May.
"In their main season foreign imports cannot compete with local strawberries. [But] strawberries are now in demand all year round, especially in the summer tourist season, and since they are not in season locally in the summer months, strawberries are being imported at a premium price from northern Europe,” Maas says.

But a Pitkalija employee quoted in the report, also claims that importers and wholesalers have been cheating the system, importing cheap produce which is placed in the local produce boxes – the upshot is that even grocers are stocking cheap imports and passing them off as local fruit and veg.

Farmers may be of a different opinion, blaming the government-run Pitkalija market, the island’s main wholesale market, for selling it at very low prices. The produce is acquired by hawkers who sell it on to supermarkets and restaurants, grocers and hotels. The Pitkalija keeps an 8% commission. The system has a lack of grading of produce, traceability, and lack of transparency in pricing.

Farmers responded by setting up farmers’ markets, where customers buy directly from the farmer, an especially feasible solution for small-scale producers.

Maas says the Pitkalija can be reformed in the same way as the Dutch flower market auction system, where the price doesn’t start from zero but from a high price where everyone auctions down.

“Farmers should organise themselves better in farmer coops. Together they can benefit from economies of scale, joint selling to restaurants and hotels, sharing facilities for packaging of produce… [and] come together to set up a farmers’ union, to better represent and safeguard their interest.”

 

Maltese Agriculture
Vital Stats

Despite the high population density and a high percentage of developed land (29%), over 40% of the country’s land surface area is classified as agricultural land.

Average annual rainfall amounts to just 500mm/year with the majority (75%) of rainfall occurring between October and February, which means the summer makes it hard for growing crops.

In 2013, total utilised agricultural area (UAA) amounted to 11,689 hectares of land, and 12,4666 agricultural holdings, three quarters of which have an area of less than 1 hectare. Only 2.4% of holdings have areas of 5 hectares of more.

In 2012 agriculture contributed 1.6% of total GDP but there are 20,000 persons actively involved in agriculture, however, only 7% of this constitutes full-time farmers, the rest being part-time employment.

The sector produces 75,000 tonnes of vegetables, valued at €33 million, and just short of 10,000 tonnes of fruit at a value of €7.5 million.