NEWS | Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Strawberry price shoots up day after festival

Limited yields hold back exports

David Darmanin

Sunday, the Mgarr Local Council and the Minsitry for Agriculture and Rural Affairs joined forces to set up a strawberry festival in a bid to raise funds for maintenance works needed on the village’s parish church. Hundreds of locals and tourists gathered on Mgarr church’s imposing parvis, flocking around stalls set up for the event selling all imaginable items containing strawberries - cakes, sweets, pancakes, smoothies and milkshakes, among others. The impossibility of reaching the cash points before a good 15-minute wait in the queue was enough to make the fundraiser seem like a veritable success.
At a point during Parish Priest Joseph Fsadni’s blessings, prior to Minister George Pullicino’s opening speech, the priest turned on the minister and half-comically said: “God bless this fruit - a strong temptation, don’t you think George?”, cracking up the crowd gathered.
The joyous mood soon came to an end when the next morning, pâtissières, caterers and resellers found out that due to lack of supply after the event, strawberries at Pitkali stores were being sold at more than a 50 percent increment.
Contacted by Business Today, Central Farmers Co-operative Chairman Clement Azzopardi commented: “The Mgarr event sold about four tonnes of strawberries, meaning that now the supply shortage has led to a price increase. This time last year Pitkali would sell strawberries at 15c per box. Boxes are selling at 23c this week. Now imagine if we were to export.”
Sadly, the increment may end up not even being justified by the financial result of the fundraiser, as the costs related to the event would normally eat up most of the takings. Asked to reveal the total amount raised, Mgarr Mayor Paul Vella said : “I don’t know how much money was raised as it’s too early to tell. We will know for sure next week when we clear the accounts. What I can tell you is that with such events, although very successful, the expenditure would be so high that what remains would not be a very large amount.”

Exportation of strawberries out of the question
By virtue of the fact that Malta harvests strawberries earlier than other European countries, and that the sweetness of the Maltese endemic strawberry is sought after, one may assume that making the product available to niches of food enthusiasts up north, at healthy mark-ups, may turn out to be rather lucrative.
But both government and stakeholders beg to differ, explaining that export would eat up the limited yield available to local consumers, rocking the Maltese market.
Asked whether he would consider the exportation of strawberries as a viable option, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs George Pullicino said : “As far as I know nobody exports strawberries from Malta… Remember that our yields need to supply both the local population as well as tourists.”
Furthermore, the Central Farmers’ Co-operative explained, as the endemic Maltese strawberry has completely vanished from the market, really and truly - there is nothing to export.
If a local entrepreneur or farmer would seriously consider exporting strawberries, chances are that the product may end up being nothing new to foreign markets, as the seed used for commercial growing of the fruit are far from being typically Maltese. The Maltese strawberry is very sweet in taste but is small in size, which seems the reason why it is not grown commercially any longer.
“You don’t find the Maltese strawberry anywhere in the market anymore,” said Azzopardi.
“The problem with this particular type of strawberry is that it is too small a fruit. Packing a box with the strawberries we find in the market today, which are at times the size of peaches, will only take six or seven fruits. With Maltese strawberries it’s a completely different story. Cultivating them would be far too labour intensive.”

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