Maltese farmers are being offered the opportunity to benefit from an organic farming business model that has been successfully implemented in neighbouring Sicily through the efforts of the network InCampagna Rete.

The network, represented locally as InCampagna Malta, is a farming collective based in Sicily that focuses its efforts on returning to a sustainable and natural method of farming. Participants, who undergo a rigorous system of organic certification, offer their produce for sale through an online portal, incampagna.com.mt, with deliveries reaching as far away as Poland, Holland and Germany.

The InCampagna concept was the brainchild of Andrea Valenziani, who wanted to find a way to render the farming tradition of Sicily viable once again. Recognising that he could no longer rely on the family traditions to meet the demands of modern life, he hit upon a solution that revolves around collaboration between the different growers.

“Sicily has always had a tradition of exporting sweet oranges. But, in recent years, competition from other countries – especially those that harvest the oranges off season – had rendered trading financially unviable. We needed a new strategy and, thanks to my future wife Justyna, we hit on it with InCampagna,” Mr Valenziani said, during an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta, which held its first gastronomy tour visiting InCampagna’s producers last weekend.

The strategy involved regaining consumers’ trust via a system of rigorous certification and the total traceability of each product grown and sold. The system caught on and, today, the reach of the online portal has extended substantially.  Now, Malta is also included. Asked about how this will affect Maltese farmers and the local market itself, Mr Valenziani replied that he hoped Maltese growers will benefit from InCampagna Malta as much as their Sicilian counterparts.

Our idea is to open the doors to Malta for a collaboration between our farmers

“Our idea is to open the doors to Malta for a collaboration between our farmers. InCampagna does not usually trade with countries that grow similar regional produce, but Malta’s case is special. I really believe that Maltese growers will benefit if there is collective collaboration. We pride ourselves on being an open source – the business model is accessible to everyone, and anyone can emulate it and reap the benefits,” Mr Valenziani said. The collective, he added, is willing to host and exchange knowledge and expertise about organic, environmentally-sustainable farming with Maltese growers, not excluding the possibility of incorporating local producers who reach the stringent requirements of certification in the InCampagna collective.

Franco Battaglia, representative for InCampagna Malta, explained that even certification standards go a step further within this collaboration.

“Everyone is aware that certification can mean very little, unless you have complete traceability for both product and certificate. This is the leverage InCampagna offers to Maltese organic farmers, to have exposure and a selling platform for their produce without losing their identity behind a brand.”

The financial and logistic advantages of such a collaboration are substantial, especially in today’s financial climate where competition is rife and big brands have the upper hand when it comes to organisation, marketing and price-cutting.

“InCampagna works on a very unique concept, and Maltese farmers who manage to obtain the right certification will find that their resources, management and organisation are optimised.

“By working together, these farmers manage to trade fairly, without compromising the price for their hard work and still contain the end cost to the consumer, so that the produce is genuine and worth its value – despite the bad press organic trade often receives in terms of pricing.”

In Campagna Malta, in fact, is already collaborating with Maltese farmers who are certified to be organic, besides being endorsed by the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement (MOAM). Several other Maltese farmers are also in process of getting the requisite organic certifications.

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