Maltese industry has to pay up to 44% higher costs for transportation, which pushes up the price of their products by 6%, the Nationalist Party said on Friday. This is in comparison to the same product being manufactured and transported to other parts of Europe from Sicily.

The party insisted that an urgent need to help the Maltese industry compete on a level playing field with competitors in Europe is required.

During a visit to a factory in the Marsa industrial estate, the party’s chief spokesperson Peter Agius, together with PN candidates Joseph Grech and Stefan Caruana, said that a new Nationalist government would immediately address the competitive disadvantage that factories, companies and importers are facing by implementing a support system that alleviates some of the current disadvantages.

Agius explained that an examination of quotations comparing the export of pallets of products from Malta, compared to the export of the same pallets from Sicily to France shows that the Maltese industry is facing transport prices of up to 44% higher.

The difference on one consignment of the same weight, meant a difference of €1,600 of added price on the Maltese product. With regard to delivery of pharmaceutical products (high value), this has an impact of 6% on the price, Agius said.

He added that this means the Maltese product should be already 6% cheaper to even start competing. On lower value manufacturing products, this impact of transport price would be much greater.

Grech said “it is fundamental that our country launches a support system for exports and imports because only in this way will we be able to reach a level playing field for Maltese manufacturing.”

The PN is responding to this call through studied proposals involving all operators in the distribution and transport chain. The party is also relying on the support of a dedicated fund that involves €40 million of financing with direct support to Maltese companies for the first year.

Caruana also highlighted how the impact of transport prices means high prices for the Maltese consumer as well. This also leads to a direct impact on employment as the industry is under pressure due to the transport prices, finding it harder to invest in better wages and conditions.

“We need to address the impact of transport prices which are on the increase, through a studied policy that intervenes strategically in support of Maltese industry,” Caruana said.