From Messers P. Spiteri, J. Gauci, P. Gauci, E. Borg, J. Galea

We refer to the article “Dead meat” by Lou Bondi (TMIS, 19 June).

In his satiric vein, it is quite evident that your correspondent missed the whole point of the poultry campaign. Or even worse, it is not important for him that the livelihood of so many families directly involved in the poultry sector is safeguarded and this is achieved if a demand for the local produce is guaranteed.

Mr Bondi’s article is also peppered with inaccuracies and worst of all, it is also a case of missing the wood for the trees. Your correspondent should know the basic difference between local fresh poultry products as opposed to imported frozen chicken. No, Mr Bondi, you can’t call the “chicken’s imported dead cousin” fresh. And freshness is one of the positive qualities on which we must build our arguments in favour of local produce. We can guarantee a very limited time span from when the chicken is processed until it reaches the consumer, whereas the same can’t be said of the imported products.

Mr Bondi also ridicules the fact that we highlighted the EU approved seal of quality in our campaign. We are proud of the fact that we are now considered to be on the same level as our European counterparts after having successfully passed stringent quality controls and reached the standards accepted by the European Union. We are sorry that the quality seal does not match Mr Bondi’s tastes but that seal is our promise of excellence to consumers.

Mr Bondi might wish to note that the visual campaign was chosen by the group of the undersigned processors and was endorsed by the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment as part of its ongoing campaign to promote local produce. In this regard, we must commend the Ministry’s efforts in promoting and assisting a sensitive sector such as ours as we adjust to the new scenario of EU membership. Such initiatives have an immediate positive effect and the response from consumers was encouraging. This campaign will be followed up in supermarkets and butcher shops in order to reach the widest audience possible.

Hopefully, we will not have more people arguing like Mr Bondi because otherwise we could truly start talking about ‘dead meat’.

Paul Spiteri – Ta’ Smina Poultry

Joe Gauci – Gauci Poultry

Paul Gauci – Valle del Miele Ltd

Edward Borg – Buxom Poultry

Joe Galea – Value Foods