Their story is wearily familiar in these days of European austerity and high unemployment: unable to find work in Spain, they left their homeland in search of opportunities elsewhere.

More and more Maltese people are developing a passion for Spanish culture

Ivan Sánchez-Gil, Angeles Diaz and Mónica Fernández joined the growing ranks of drifting Spaniards who landed in Malta to practise their English and look for employment; some staying for a few months, others much longer.

With unemployment in Spain hovering around 25 per cent and youth unemployment at over 50 per cent, many young Spaniards have little option but to try their luck abroad.

And contrary to the local stereotype of rowdy Spanish teens running amok in Paceville, many are well-educated, highly motivated over-25s who are paying the price for a financial crisis not of their making.

Mr Sánchez-Gil, Ms Diaz and Ms Fernández – three of five shareholders in new company Made in Spain Ltd – fall into this category.

Having had varying degrees of success in the job market since arriving in Malta in the past 18 months, the three amigos hope their new venture importing top quality Spanish food and wine will be a winner.

“Like every Spanish person in Malta, we miss our country and miss typical Spanish food and ingredients,” said Mr Sánchez -Gil.

“Many Spanish people living here have talked about importing Spanish products commercially, but we are the first ones to actually do it”.

Sitting in a beachside bar in Sliema and enjoying a few beers as they wait for the sun to set, it is easy to see why they chose Malta over the UK to improve their English proficiency and gain experience abroad.

However, they don’t just have the island’s growing community of young Spaniards in their sights – the Made in Spain team believe there will also be strong demand from Maltese customers and non-Spanish expatriates for their goods.

“More and more Maltese people are developing a passion for Spanish culture,” Ms Diaz pointed out, citing the burgeoning Alegria dance academy and the Centro Cultural Hispano Maltés as evidence of this.

And the development of low-cost air links between Malta and four major Spanish cities – Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Valencia – over recent years has encouraged many Maltese to visit Spain on city break holidays instead of traditional destinations such as London and Rome.

“They enjoyed eating Spanish food when they visited Spain but when they returned to Malta they could not find real Spanish products anywhere... until now,” Ms Diaz said.

The company was the brainchild of Ms Diaz, a dance instructor, and Mr Sánchez-Gil, who has a background in human resources but had struggled to find steady employment since arriving in Malta, citing his lack of Maltese language skills as a factor.

A mutual friend introduced them to Ms Fernández, who works for a firm which helps to set-up companies on the island, and in just three months their Malta–registered company was up and running.

There are another two shareholders – Juan José Fernández, who lives in Spain and helps to source the produce, and Ms Fernández’s Maltese partner David Cauchi.

One of the biggest logistical problems they had was shipping – they could only find one company that shipped refrigerated goods between Malta and Spain and their most recent order was delayed by stormy weather.

Their produce is sourced from across Spain and Mr Sánchez-Gil said the emphasis is on quality.

“We are all knowledgeable about Spanish food so we knew where to find suppliers that would give us the best produce,” he said.

For example, they have imported ham from Guijuelo in Salamanca; “if you say the name of this town to a Spanish person they will instantly think of ham,” said Ms Fernández.

Although they focus on high-quality produce, they say their prices are affordable.

They have minimised overheads by selling everything through their website ( http://madeinspainmalta-es.webs.com ) or via telephone and they store products at Chef Choice in Marsascala for what they described as a very reasonable price.

The most expensive of their five hams currently for sale is Lomo ibérico Bellota (Best Quality Cured Iberian Loin), which sells at €6.50 per 100g, while five varieties of wine range in price from €3.50 to €10.50 per bottle.

Party hampers containing a mix of meat and wine are also offered.

Orders are delivered free of charge at a time agreed with the customer and there is no minimum price for delivery: “We will even deliver one small packet of ham late in the evening because we are so confident that if people try our produce once they will definitely order more in future,” said Mr Sánchez-Gil.

The company began deliveries last Tuesday and plans to do most of its initial marketing through its website, Facebook page and word-of-mouth.

It also held a wine and tapas tasting session for invited guests in Sliema last night to demonstrate different ways their products could be enjoyed.

They acknowledge it will be difficult to tempt mainstream consumers away from the familiar Italian products which take up much of the space on supermarket shelves, but they hope initiatives like tasting sessions and posting recipes on their website will slowly change habits.

Made in Spain is already eyeing up new products, such as olive oil from Andalucía and manchego cheese from La Mancha.

They will focus initially on home deliveries but are open to the possibility of supplying supermarkets and restaurants and perhaps opening their own store if there is enough interest.

“In the first year we hope to grow reputation gradually but we would like this to become a profitable venture for all of us... why not?” said Ms Diaz, to optimistic nods and smiles from her colleagues.