The government is to slash the subsidy given to wine producers on imported grapes and will instead invest the same amount in a marketing campaign to promote locally-produced wine, Environment Minister George Pullicino said yesterday.
Mr Pullicino said the government believed in the quality of the local product and would be investing to promote it, especially among tourists visiting the country. He said this was just one of a number of the measures the government would be taking to promote local produce.
The minister said the government’s efforts in recent years have yielded excellent results. He said that in 2003, there were vineyards covering 600 hectares of land while in 2006, the area increased to more than 900 hectares.
He said the government was also urging local producers to introduce the DOK Production Protocol with the aim of increasing and controlling the quality standards within the Maltese wine industry so that consumers would have the assurance that all statements on the wine labels were correct.
He said the government could not wait for all local producers unanimously to agree to introduce this system. Marsovin and Camilleri Wines, two local producers, are leading the way for this quality assurance system to come into force and other local producers are then expected to follow suit. Without a DOK certification, the locally-produced wine will be classified as table wine.
Mr Pullicino said that in order to ensure quality grapes, the producers have to live up to their commitments with the farmers.
On this matter, The Malta Independent spoke to Stephen Galea, president of the Maltese Viticulture Society.
Mr Galea said growers who had an agreement with a main local producer and were promised between 40 and 45 cents for every kilogram of grapes, received a letter telling them that the producer was willing to pay them only between 18 and 25 cents instead. He said farmers were up in arms about this and even sent a reply to this letter through their lawyers.
When asked, Mr Galea said the reason for this decision, according to the letter, was because of competition from foreign producers.
On the DOK system, Mr Galea said farmers want this system to be introduced in order to ensure better quality of the grapes produced locally although, he admitted, some farmers might prefer to increase the quantity of grapes to the detriment of quality.
Marsovin’s Exports and Marketing Director, Jeremy Cassar said Marsovin pressed over 1.1 million kilograms of grapes in 2006, an increase of 80 per cent over the previous year.
He said the company reached agreements with over 400 farmers who are supplying Marsovin with quality grapes.
He said Marsovin is taking the lead in the introduction of DOK in Malta and Gozo and this was the commitment it was giving to consumers who were being assured the best quality wines available.