Things are looking up for Malta's swine population but not so much for their owners.

Pork production in the second quarter this year dropped by a significant 13.8 per cent when compared to the corresponding period in 2008. Still, according to the latest official statistics profits held up, decreasing only by 1.8 per cent, eating €58,128 over the €3.2 million pig breeders made last year.

It is a further blow over the 8.2 per cent drop seen in this year's first quarter, during a time in which the pig farming industry has been getting less-than-positive press, first with the Irish pork contamination last December and then this summer's A (H1N1) influenza virus scare.

However, when asked whether the drop in production had anything to do with the swine flu pandemic, the general secretary of the pig breeders' cooperative, Lippu Bezzina said the flu played a rather minor role. The main culprit, according to him, is the liberalisation of the sector brought about by Malta's EU accession in 2004.

The flu itself did not affect pig meat in any way. It got its name because it first mutated from pigs onto humans. But the perception still affected the industry abroad, to the point that the World Health Organisation actually asked the media to refer to it by the scientific A (H1N1) rather than swine flu.

"When we joined the EU, competition from imported pork didn't affect our production that much. But, lately, local pork has had to compete with meat imported mostly from Spain, which is sold much cheaper than ours due to its inferior quality. It is usually injected with salted water and other additives."

He substantiated his claim by producing the copy of a label indicating that the meat contains water, milk protein and soybean protein. "Fresh meat," Mr Bezzina added, "doesn't need any of that stuff."

Local meat production as a whole (excluding rabbits) saw an overall drop of 8.8 per cent, with poultry production shrinking by 3.8 per cent. The fortunes of these industries fluctuated over the past years.

Meanwhile, cattle hasn't been so lucky, with slaughter seeing an increase of 0.7 per cent over the corresponding quarter last year.