4th and 5th May Agri Committee
The Green Hand will follow closely both Agri Committee Meetings taking place on the 4th and 5th May at the European Parliament in Brussels. These meetings will be particularly interesting for Malta as they will cover topics such as generational renewal in agriculture, the current crisis in the Middle East and the olive sector.
Generation renewal is indeed primordial for Malta both in terms of food autonomy and preserving Maltese food heritage and traditions. Young famers are facing structural barriers such as limited agricultural land access, low incomes, long working hours (having most of the time another job on the side) and administrative burdens. The irony here is that the ones who feed us need a second job to be able to feed themselves. Strong financial support is therefore needed to attract more persons into the profession full-time and enable them to settle-in and to develop their activities in the long run.
The Middle East crisis could easily be compared to a veritable time bomb should it escalate as energy and fertilizer prices will most probably spike food prices in the coming months. High energy and food prices can quickly become a dangerous cocktail in terms of inflation and will sooner or later threaten not only the food security and sovereignty of the import dependent island, but also its economy as a whole. A solution in consultation with the farmers will need to be found soon.
The olive oil sector is not directly supported by the last Maltese Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan and it has a lot in common with other sectors in terms of quality control such as the dairy sector for example. Olive oil and milk testing are expensive for the producers due to the economy of scale. In addition, Malta currently only has one Product with Designation of Origin (PDO) and no quality scheme ensuring a fair competition between the producers and fighting food fraud in general. It would be thus interesting to learn more about the European Court of Auditors’ report and see how the authenticity, safety and traceability of Maltese olive oil can be ensured.
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