Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/709569
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2016 13 sume it is local as was the case in the past. But today one can get a truck of pork from other countries, from Sicily on a daily basis." While in the case of processed pork, the country of origin of the pork has to be specified on the la- bel, no such obligation exists on fresh loose pork but it is still illegal to mislead consumers that the pork is local. "There have been isolated cases of retailers verbally misinforming con- sumers that imported pork is local. This is fraudulent. Thankfully the majority of retailers do not engage in such practices." Why is Maltese pork better than the imported product? Apart from the fact that thanks to the climate Maltese pigs "have ac- cess to natural ventilation and sun- light", the main reason is that local breeders are not geared for export and therefore offer the premium product to the local market. Other countries tend to offer the premium product for local consumption while exporting their "second best". He also points out that it is easier to enforce health and animal welfare standards in a small country with a limited number of small establishments like Malta, than in countries with a large number of farms. "In a country with only 98 farms which are all 15 min- utes away from the authori- ties it is possible to check all the farms annually… In Spain they have to take rep- resentative samples. Only 5% of farms are inspected each year." He also points out that in Malta farms are managed by their owners and not by mini- mum wage earners. "They know whether a sow is in- jured or sick. These people know each sow by number. If you go to a farm in Spain you find 500 fattening pigs in each shed. They literally find dead pigs on the floor when they are taking pigs to the slaughter house". It is quality which, according to Frendo, can give Maltese breeders a competitive advantage, especially when restaurants and smaller out- lets buy pork. Frendo also argues that buying local pork makes sense for people concerned about environmental sustainability and animal welfare. But isn't the local pig industry responsible for the release of vast amounts of pig slurry into the drain- age system? I refer to a recent report on agricultural waste management, which set a wide range of slurry pro- duction from 12,500m3 to a much higher volume of 157,300m3 and claims that slurry ends up clogging sewage treatment plants. Frendo rebuts, explaining that pig slurry is highly liquid and similar in consistency to human excrement and therefore cannot be responsi- ble for clogging filters in treatment plants, mainly because pig farms do not use bedding like hay or straw, which may end up mixed with the waste. Moreover pig breeders do not have to power-hose the floors every day – the animals do not stand in their own faeces – their urine and faeces go down through gaps in the concrete flooring, which is collected and does not mix with straw or hay, with the result of blocking sewage treatment plants. What is sure is that EU legislation obliges Malta to treat animal waste separately from human waste and that Malta presently lacks a system to cater for this. Breeders are presently obliged to store slurry for not more than 21 days and take the slurry to dropping points allocated by the government, where it is mixed with other drain- age. Frendo blames the situation on the lack of investment in anaerobic digestion, a process that can change animal waste into energy. He dis- misses the idea of exporting this waste as a costly way of removing a potential resource which would have to be replaced by chemical fer- tilizers. Frendo recognises that the num- ber of breeding farms has to be reduced and that restructuring is needed. But he is offended by the suggestion made by Galdes that the solution is for pig breeders to diversify their operations, moving away from pigs to other breeds of animals, such as sheep and goats, or to consider other options such as agro-tourism to replace their pig- breeding operation. "To suggest that a pig farmer knows how to rear sheep and goats as if there is no skill involved, as if one is born with this natural abil- ity, is offensive and it is something which people who do not know anything about the subject would say… If I have been rearing pigs for 30 years I can't just switch to rearing sheep or shift to the hos- pitality sector. It is like telling me to start doing accounts simply be- cause there are too many veteri- narians." But why didn't the cooperative use EU funds to restructure and become more competitive? The problem, according to Fren- do, was that EU funds aimed at re- structuring the sector were chan- nelled to firms involved in the processing of pork instead of help- ing local producers set up their own processing plant. Incredibly processors are not even obliged to buy a proportion of their pork from local producers. This has led to a situation that some pro- cessors have ended up investing in cold stores, which they could stock up with imported pork. News Madliena Malta "EU rules oblige Malta to treat animal waste separately from human waste and Malta lacks a system for this" pork: is it still feasible? Veterinarian Oliver Frendo Parliamentary secretary for rural affairs Roderick Galdes at a pig farm