As time goes by, it is becoming ever more clear that, all claims notwithstanding, joining the EU could be the death-knell for Malta’s ailing farmers.

It should not have been so, for the EU is well-known for the way it defends its farmers, but that is precisely what has been allowed to happen.

Before starting to point fingers, the farmers and their organisations could well point the fingers at themselves. This momentous choice by the people of Malta found them fractious and unable to come together with any real strength.

Then they found a government that is weak and has never thought strategically in this respect, a government which has, is, allowing all kinds of other enterprises to ride roughshod over the legitimate concerns of the farmers. Importers have had a field day, as have producers. The farmers have only got crumbs.

We are now in the ridiculous situation that we are calling Maltese produce that is not grown in Malta: tomatoes reportedly grown in China, processed in Turkey and turned into Maltese produce; capers grown in Turkey, sun-dried tomatoes that are dried in ovens, even liquid extracted from prickly pears,which, for admittedly legitimate reasons, also comes from abroad. The list goes on and on.

Unfortunately, it is only in wine-making industry that the origin is carefully monitored and described, and even that may be on the way out due to WTO pressures. As to the rest, the EU is unfortunately too lax in checking what is what. Or else it is too lax to check carefully what is going on here.

The same thing is happening with EU subsidies and the subsidies given by the government. The government always states the gross figures, but the individual farmer knows that from that huge sum the producers get the lion’s share and he gets the crumbs. Coming from an organisation whose origin intended it to help the poor against the strong and to mitigate the impact of industrialisation and globalisation rather than to exacerbate them, this is a bit rich.

Time is now running out: in a few years’ time all the subsidies will stop and the industry will then face the whole impact of globalisation: food produce coming in from the other EU countries, especially through the new European supermarkets being set up, and also from outside the EU. There will be, there already is, a big shakedown of the sector and Malta and only Malta will suffer as a result.

As this leader said at the beginning: the farmers have only themselves to blame for they did not unite, they allowed strife and petty rivalry, and also party politics, to split them up when they should have joined forces.

But the government and the people in general also must do far more than they have done, or are doing. There is a lot to be said for really promoting Malta-grown produce and for extolling and protecting what is grown in the fields of Malta and warmed by the Maltese sun, for ensuring it reaches the market in pristine condition, for generating a nationalistic belief in the goodness of what is grown in Malta as against the produce of mass production elsewhere.

Then again, the farmers of Malta must use creativity as a means of survival: by coming out with products they can produce, by keeping their costs down, by learning market techniques and the all-important and so often forgotten packaging techniques, and by expressing their faith in the excellent quality of what is grown in Malta without over-reliance on chemicals to do the job.

And, finally and fundamentally, they must learn the hard lesson of survival: that unless they come together and forget old differences and feuds, as they will always remain too weak and splintered to take on the giants, whether Maltese-grown or foreign who quickly learn how Malta and its institutions fast become subservient to whoever is strong and manages economies of scale.