Farmers at the Ta’ Qali market have been threatened with legal action for irregular pesticide use, the Times of Malta has learnt.
The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority told this newspaper that following tests conducted on locally grown produce, a number of sellers at the open air market in Ta’ Qali had been served with registered letters informing them they would face legal action if the situation persisted.
The issue of excessive pesticide use was flagged by this newspaper earlier this month. Some 20 per cent of the greens tested at Ta’ Qali were found to contain illegal levels of pesticide residue.
Farmers at the market disputed they were in the wrong, with their lawyer writing in this newspaper that “none of the farmers at this market have been banned from entering the market and none were subjected to court action”.
READ: Pesticides board looks into fruit and veg test results
While none of the farmers have faced court action, the Times of Malta can confirm that tests were in fact conducted at the Ta’ Qali market.
Reacting to this, a spokesman for the sellers at the market confirmed that produce with excessive levels had indeed been discovered there.
“It results that the majority [of the excess] is related to peaches,” the spokesman said. He added that immediate action had been taken by the market.
“Since then, the farmers at the market have retained the highest standards,” he added.
The pesticide situation in Malta is not just bad by local standards. The Sunday Times of Malta has reported how Maltese fruits and vegetables were actually the most likely to contain illegal levels of pesticides in all of Europe.
The European Food Safety Authority confirmed that locally grown produce is more than twice as likely to exceed the acceptable pesticide levels as the EU average.
According to the authority, more than five per cent of the Maltese produce that the authorities tested in 2015 was over the limit for chemicals sprayed by farmers. The EU average was less than two per cent. The local situation in 2014 was actually twice as bad.
Meanwhile, the MCCAA is yet to provide this newspaper with a detailed breakdown of its test results for 2016.