The Pitkali fruit and vegetable market has suspended the sale of crates from its premises after noting that in recent years, the crates were being used for purposes other than to transport local produce.

Meanwhile, a seller on auction website Maltapark has listed “pitkali crates” in the For Sale section. The seller, who goes by the username carlo2015, said he was selling both the crates and the tokens required to obtain them from the market.

New crates cost €8, while used or broken ones are on sale for €6. The seller said he could deliver them to anywhere in Malta. The tokens are being sold for €6.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture said farmers, hawkers and pitkala (the middlemen) are only at liberty to sell their crates and tokens to each other.

A reform of the Pitkali market is in the works and this will include improvements to the crate circulation system, he said.

At the moment the circulation of crates between farmers, pitkala and hawkers involves the exchange of tokens and there is no time limit to how long the crates can be kept.

An “IT solution” will replace this system. “Once this is in place, subsequent phases of the project can be planned and implemented.

One of these phases will include the introduction of crates containing a radio-frequency identification chip (RFID),” the spokesman said.

“These crates will enable improvements in the traceability of products, as well as facilitate the management of the crates.”

However, the farmers seem to be resisting change because they were promised a new pitkalija well before Malta’s entry to the EU and now believe that this reform will not materialise any time soon, a spokesman for the farmers’ association, Assoċjazjoni tal-Bdiewa, said.

“Some farmers also feel strongly about ownership of the crates. There are cases where farmers put the crates in their will.”

Questions are also being raised about cost.