Malta self-sufficient for most vegetables

Malta is self-sufficient in the production of most vegetables, milk and eggs but partially depends on imports when it comes to meat, wine and potatoes.

The National Statistics Office, which today published its Agriculture and Fisheries 2007 report, said that the agriculture industry employs 1,700 full-time employees and 15,400 part-timers. They are engaged in 11,018 holdings and work 10,326 hectors of land that comprises a third of the total land area.

Total agriculture production in 2007 reached €120 million. There were 152 pig farms with 77,000 pigs and 394 cattle farms with 19,500 heads, 40 per cent of which were dairy cows and produced about 41,000 tonnes of milk a year.

Cattle meat consumed in Malta was mostly imported with about 5,000 cattle slaughtered locally yielding 1.4 million kilogrammes of beef.

Maltese farms had about 12,315 sheep and 6,228 goats primarily used for milk to produce cheeslets. There were 1,223 poultry holdings with 1,22 million heads.

In 2007 the total number of fishing vessels amounted to 2,678. The report shows that 1,466 people were employed in this sector but only 364 were full-timers. 849 tonnes of fresh fish were landed at the fish market yielding €5 million with the three main species including blue-fin-tuna, Dorado and swordfish that made up 70 per cent of the catch.