Farmers should be given the chance to buy fuel at reduced prices like their counterparts in many other EU member states, Nationalist Party EP candidate Peter Agius said on Wednesday.

Maltese farmers were paying double what Sicilian ones paid, he said at a press conference in which he called for subsidies to help local agriculture.

"Farmers in EU countries buy tractors with red diesel specifically marked for agricultural use,” Agius said.

“Many farmers tell us farmers in Sicily buy fuel at €0.60c per litre, while they have to pay €1.20. This situation leaves a direct impact on the competitiveness of the Maltese and Gozitan farmers in their competition with foreign imports,” he said.

While most EU member states granted subsidies to farmers -either for their electricity or fuel costs - this was not the case in Malta.

Agius argued that local farmers were also getting the short end of the stick when it came to buying pesticides and herbicides.