The Potato and Agrarian Festival in Qrendi featured different produce varieties.The Potato and Agrarian Festival in Qrendi featured different produce varieties.

Michael Caruana, the young farmer who featured in an online video about potato exportation, was one of the main attractions at the Potato and Agrarian Festival in Qrendi yesterday.

“I saw you on the internet,” was a common phrase he heard while explaining the harvesting process to keen festival-goers, standing in front of a tractor and other machinery used to grow potatoes.

Michael Caruana speaks.

The 25-year-old has been working in the industry for as long as he can remember after inheriting the trade from his maternal grand-father, Luigi Muscat, who grew crops to feed his own family.

Last year, he sent his first five containers, each weighing about 28 tons, to the Netherlands and this year he exported nine others.

Mr Caruana’s venture gained popularity through a video uploaded on You Tube in March, which got some 160,000 hits.

In the clip, Mr Caruana romanticises the cultivation of potatoes, going to lengths to explain that potato harvesting runs in his family’s blood, putting into words the authenticity of this home-grown, hand-picked vegetable that tastes of “the sea, the church and the sun”.

The young man gained popularity overnight and, despite the initial criticism, he was soon commended for his passion, expertise and refusal to let criticism upset him.

“A lot of people stop by to ask me questions or take photos. This gives me more confidence in my work and encourages me to develop my investment in potato growing.

“I would like to thank the people who are encouraging me.

“My popularity is benefiting my country as well, after all.”

Mr Caruana does not have his own You Tube or Facebook account – he was not aware the video had gone viral until his friends told him – but he plans to set up a Facebook page to keep the public updated about potato growing and harvesting throughout the year.

For the festival, Mr Caruana set up a stall with some of his harvest and potato-shaped soft toys.

Qrendi held the second edition of the potato festival at Ġnien tal-Warda, one of the locality’s historical gardens.

Organised by Qrendi local council in collaboration with the Tourism Ministry and the Malta Tourism Authority, the festival included different potato varieties, agricultural equipment and machinery used in the harvesting and exportation of potatoes.

Food stalls served potato-based gourmet dishes and other culinary delights, including ice cream.

Some of Malta’s major potato producers and exporters are located in Qrendi, where the reddish soil gives the crop a golden tint.

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