The company that provides and cleans crates for farmers is complaining about a lack of space to do its job, which is resulting in poor health and safety.

Pitkali Crates Ltd chairman Joseph Farrugia said the government reduced the size of its washing station in Attard, causing hygiene problems and inefficiency.

It also owed the company over €200,000 in tariffs from those who use the service, money it was bound to collect by law, he said. The company maintains that the government has withheld some of the amount and failed to collect the rest.

Pitkali Crates Ltd is a non-profit-making organisation, set up in 1989. Yesterday evening, it met farmers to inform them about “these misdeeds” by the government.

Mr Farrugia stressed that the company was obliged to provide and distribute the green crates, but it went a step further, changing and recycling any broken ones that were returned for free. It had even invested in a washing machine.

Initially, it operated from an area of over 1,400 square metres. But the space was dramatically reduced and it was now confined to a narrow shed, limiting its speed and efficiency.

Mr Farrugia said Pitkali Crates Ltd has been asking for more space for the last five years, but to no avail.

Whereas it used to churn out a daily 15,000 clean crates waiting for the farmers, now it was the farmers that were waiting for the crates.

“Moreover, more often than not, the crates – in which agricultural produce is carried – turn up for cleaning after they have been used many times over. One wash in the machine would not suffice in that case,” Mr Farrugia said.