Rural Affairs and the Environment Minister George Pullicino announced to a full hall of tomato farmers that though the price of tomatoes is expected to rise this year, an additional incentive will be given to farmers for every tomna worth of tomatoes produced.
Minister Pullicino said this at a seminar for tomato farmers held yesterday at St Paul’s Bay.
The minister also said that the subsidy for 2007, which is always distributed at this time of year, will reach around e1.4 million (Lm600,000).
He told farmers that under the decoupled aid scheme through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, which was implemented last year to transfer the aid from the product to the producer, farmers would receive a payment of no less than e3.45 (Lm1.48) for 100 kilos.
The minister said that this amount could vary from e3.45 to e6.90 (Lm1.48 to Lm3)
However, he emphasised that payment would not be made for one kilo produced, but for every tomna of land.
John Magro of Magro Brothers Group said that payment by the Group will reach e5.35 (Lm2.30) for every 100 kilos.
The minister explained, that following the Special Market Policy Programme for Maltese Agriculture (SMPPMA), which will remain coupled, farmers will continue to receive the same amount even though payment will be made for every tomna produced, that is e15.38 (Lm6.60) per 100 kilos.
Therefore, according to calculations, total subsidy for tomato farmers will be equivalent to e18.64 (Lm8) for every 100 kilos in 2008.
He said that exportation of Maltese-produced tomatoes in 2007 had reached to a little more than one third of the whole production, resulting in exports of 3,000 tonnes out of 9,000, and that tomato-processing was thus becoming an important advert for Malta.
Minister Pullicino said that owing to technical aid from Italian experts who implemented technical variations to improve the quality of the product, the sector of tomato-processing is more likely to expand.
He also referred to those who thought that there was no future in the agricultural sector of tomatoes and said that they were erroneous on this behalf.
He added that he expected tomato production to reach the 11,000 tonne benchmark in 2008.