Farmers becoming more dependent on subsidies

Over the past years farmers have become more dependent on government and EU subsidies, according to a National Statistics Office report.

The Agriculture and Fisheries Publication for 2007 shows that, although the income generated by the agricultural industry remained rather consistent since 2005, the amount of subsides contributing to that income increased over the years.

Farmers' income marginally rose by 3.5 per cent, from €61 million in 2006 to €63.2 million in 2007.

Whereas subsidies amounted to 31.8 per cent of farmers' income in 2006, the dependency of subsidies increased by 4.9 percentage points to 36.7 per cent in 2007. These included subsidies on production that are mostly covered by the government and subsidies not directly linked to production (such as rubble walls), which are mainly provided by the EU.

The NSO report provided a breakdown of the agriculture and fisheries sectors to help policymakers undertake adequate measures towards sustainability, among other things.

It showed that Malta was self-sufficient in the production of most vegetables, milk and eggs but partially dependant on imports when it comes to meat and potatoes.

The report also showed that the agriculture industry employed 1,700 full-time employees and 15,400 part-timers who work 10,326 hectares of land. The total agriculture production in 2007 reached €120 million.

There were 152 pig farms with 77,000 live pigs and 100,000 were slaughtered, producing eight million kilograms of pork.

Meanwhile, 394 cattle farms housed 19,500 heads, 40 per cent of which were dairy cows that 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 kilograms of beef.

Maltese farms had 12,315 sheep and 6,228 goats primarily used for milk to produce cheeselets.

There were 1,223 poultry farms with 1.22 million birds.

As for fruit and vegetables, in 2007, an estimated 85,400 tonnes yielded €39 million.

Moving on to fisheries, in 2007, the total number of fishing vessels amounted to 2,678. The report showed that 1,466 people were employed in this sector but only 364 were full-timers.

About 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.