Editorial

The traditional Maltese loaf of bread is delicious. Maltese nationals living broad openly admit there are few things they miss more. Every town or village has a baker; some have more. Traditional bread is, indeed, a part of Malta's heritage and a staple of the Maltese diet. Who could conceive of summers without the joys of Maltese hobz biz-zejt, prepared with tomatoes and olive oil?

Alas, Maltese bakers - an extremely hard-working body of men whose working conditions and anti-social hours are nothing short of impressive - are facing a crisis. World conditions in the wheat market have led to a sudden, steep increase of almost a quarter in the price of a sack of flour. Since the price of a loaf of bread is fixed by the government, the bakers are complaining that their profit margins have been eroded, if not completely eliminated.

An agreement with the government stipulates that when the production costs of bread are shown to have increased - as they demonstrably have - it was bound to issue a subsidy to cover the new costs. In this case, the government will have to find an extra Lm572,000 a year to subsidise bakers for the hike in costs on the world market. While the Minister for Competitiveness, Censu Galea, accepts that these are the terms of the agreement with the Bakers' Cooperative, he has pleaded for time to assess the situation and to consult the Ministry of Finance in the light of the high additional burden on the Exchequer, which this subsidy would entail. A meeting he had on Friday with the bakers' representatives was inconclusive. One augurs the one planned for today will have a happy ending.

Bakers, who see their livelihoods being stretched, are understandably impatient for an answer. The longer the decision is delayed, the greater the threat to the traditional Maltese loaf, as bakers might be tempted to switch their output to producing so-called "fancy" bread whose price is not regulated.

The impasse must be resolved quickly. To do so, both the government and the Bakers' Cooperative must be prepared to think more creatively. One alternative to an increase in the government subsidy is for the price of a loaf of bread to be raised by 2c, bakers say. This would appear to be sensible and would still leave the price at a very reasonable level, provided, of course, the customer gets the full value for his/her money especially in terms of weight.

The provision of a government subsidy, paid for out of taxpayers' money, for bread - or indeed any other commodity - no longer makes sense. Perhaps it is even time for the government to reconsider its decision to regulate the price of a loaf of bread. What's good for "fancy" bread should be good for the traditional Maltese loaf.

Yet, in the run-up to a general election, nothing is so simple. Bread has a special place and significance in the Maltese psyche.

But the days when a Maltese family's dependence on bread for sole sustenance was central have long past. It would be invidious for the opposition to make an issue out of an increase in the price of bread in the circumstances. As to the longer term, it would surely make sense for both the government and the opposition to agree that the subsidy to bakers should be removed over time and the price of a loaf of Maltese bread allowed to rise to the level of demand.