EU accession brought about radical changes to the dairy sector. Reams of regulations and standards meant that the production and processing sector had to invest heavily – or give up. But membership also brought funds which helped the sector to upgrade. The removal of protective levies and easier movement of goods also had a radical impact on competition. Vanessa Macdonald found that 10 years later, the stakeholders survived by taking painful decisions.

Chris Zahra’s brand of cheeselets is stocked in all the Scotts outlets and they fly off the shelves.

Chris Zahra’s eyes filled with tears and he turned his face away quickly with embarrassment. His wife Dorianne and her part-time sister-in-law Marika were in the preparation room, chatting animatedly as they poured the curdled milk mixture into plastic moulds, turning over the cheeselets after a few minutes, ready to pack or dry out. They were blissfully unaware of his anxiety attack.

He feels the burden of having to make enough money to support his mother, his wife and his three sons, working round the clock and yet never quite able to get his head above water.

“I will prevent my sons from ever going into this business,” he said bitterly. “I would never have gone in for it had I realised what it would entail. I wake up at 4.30am and never get a day off or take a holiday. And yet I still barely make a profit. It would be so much less stressful to work for someone else and get a wage...”

The irony is that Chris is successful. His Verdalat brand of cheeselets is stocked at all the Scotts outlets and they fly off the shelves. He also sells them at the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays and supplies various restaurants.

He is innovative, coming up with new products like cheeselets with rucola and chilli, and with green and red peppercorns, as well as in jars with fancy labels. He is forward-thinking, using EU funds extensively to upgrade, extend and improve. He is passionate, organising tours for tourists and schoolchildren to pass on his enthusiasm for traditions. And he is dedicated, sticking arduously to the high standards for vaccination, testing and so on.

But this means his cost base is very high – and the authorities are constantly imposing new conditions which require more and more investment ­– and he is competing against producers who are not as diligent. As well as cowboys: He bought cheaper rival products and had them tested – and was not surprised to find that they were not made entirely from sheep’s milk.

“No wonder they can sell them for a quarter of the price!” he said bitterly.

The farm, just a stone’s throw from Verdala Palace, had just 20 sheep when Chris took it over aged 18. Both he and his wife come from farming families, and grow their own feed for the sheep.

Over the years, he has built up the flock to 80. His mother used to milk the sheep by hand but he used EU funds to buy a €30,000 milking machine, tractor and power-wash as well as insulation and flooring for the production room. He also made other changes and started using greener straw to improve the fat content. He also tapped into Malta Enterprise schemes to buy the pasteuriser, a huge leap forward at a time when he did not even have a three-phase power supply.

“The problem is that although you get half the amount you ask for from the EU, you have to fund the remainder yourself. And if there are cost overruns, you end up paying for three quarters of the project!” he said.

There is little more that he can do to generate more income. He had tried other products like ricotta but when feed prices went up, he could no longer compete with imported brands. At least with ġbejniet there is no competition – yet.

“Anyone could start making them. This is why the sooner the legal notice protecting ġbejniet is so important. Except it could turn out to be a real problem if the definition is that traditional ġbejniet must be made with unpasteurised milk, which consumers would not be too happy with,” he fretted.

The impact of EU accession on the sector had been worrying producers for a while and in 1999, the Għaqda Produtturi tal-Ġbejniet tal-Ħalib tan-Nagħaġ was formed to lobby for the sector. Chris was the president but the association is now dormant and although he is a member of its replacement – the Xirka Produtturi Nagħaġ u Mogħoż – he feels that the momentum has been lost.

“The sector had really come together when there was a brucellosis outbreak but once the scare was over, we drifted apart,” he said.

On balance, he believes that the EU, in spite of all its challenges in other sectors, is all that kept the sector alive.

“There would only be a few mad people like me had it not been for the EU. But we need to have a legal notice so that unlicensed production can be banned. There has been too much foot-dragging!”he said.

It is time to load up his truck to start deliveries. He pulls himself together, takes one more look at the two newborn lambs and heads off. It will be another long day.