Fruit scheme feels the squeeze

The budget for an EU scheme intended to provide Maltese primary schools with a daily dose of fruit has been held back by the government, which is trying to rein in its soaring deficit.

The €1.2 million which had already been earmarked for this scheme in the 2009 Budget, "is no longer available", government sources said, adding this was due to various cost-cutting measures.

The EU School Fruit Scheme, which should have been introduced in Malta on a daily basis at the beginning of this scholastic year, has been postponed and drastically scaled down due to a lack of government funds.

The Rural Affairs Ministry, which is responsible for the scheme, yesterday admitted it had revised the scheme. However, it said "there was never an obligation to start this scheme on a specific date" and following consultation with stakeholders it was considered best to "lower the frequency" from that originally planned.

The scheme's introduction was agreed at an EU level last November following an EU Agriculture Council meeting in Brussels. The initial three-year project, starting from this scholastic year, was aimed at supplying primary schoolchildren with fresh fruit and vegetables on a weekly basis.

The EU would provide 75 per cent of the money needed to provide primary schoolchildren with this weekly supply of fresh fruit and the rest would be forked out by the participating member state.

Just four months ago, the EU increased Malta's share of the funding - to €226,000 from €175,000 - to be used for this scheme for this scholastic year.

In view of the high obesity rate among Maltese children, the island was one of the main supporters of this scheme and had not only decided to take part but go a step further.

After the Council meeting, Rural Affairs Minster George Pullicno had announced the government "decided to invest €1.2 million of the 2009 Budget into this scheme to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to our young students on a daily basis and not once a week as the original EU proposal suggests".

However, despite Mr Pullicino's pledge, cost-cutting measures have forced the scheme to be severely scaled back to just once a week and its introduction postponed to January.

According to government sources, the introduction date was postponed due to the lengthy tendering process, which was not concluded on time.

Questioned about this, a ministry spokesman did not deny that the decision to scale down the scheme was primarily a cost-cutting measure but gave other reasons for this revision.

"Following consultations with all the stakeholders involved, it was agreed the start of the scheme be set at January 1, 2010 to allow time to receive the final implementation rules from the Commission for the operation of the scheme," the spokesman said.

Asked why the scheme has been scaled down to just once a week, the spokesman said: "Given the national funds allocated and the feedback received from schools, it was considered best to split the contract period in two, with the first phase being for a lower frequency than that originally planned."

According to the ministry, this should provide for an ideal learning curve for the uptake of the measure, to minimise wastage of produce and assess the capacity and delivery arrangements of the selected bidder.