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As the only producer of compost for the local mushroom farming industry, please allow me to make some clarifications on Mr Joe Farrugia’s views expressed in his article ‘Maltese milk keeps farming landscape intact’ (MaltaToday 23 May). The prices quoted by Mr Farrugia of Lm2.50 and Lm2.75 per bale are factually incorrect. Our straw purchases on the local market never exceeded Lm1.25 per bale and this price is inclusive of transport costs and commissions paid to the farmers’ agents. Consequently, the margin left in the hands of the Maltese farmer was much less than the Lm1.25 we paid and definitely nowhere near that quoted by Mr Farrugia.
Regretfully, we had to resort to importing straw from abroad due to the following circumstances: Straw supplies in Malta dwindled due to very dry winter in the past two years – therefore, local supply was severely limited.
Also Farmers and balers have engaged in such practices as loosening the spring on the baler (to increase volume), adding stones (to increase weight) and mixing unwanted grass and weeds (eg thorns and ‘lellux’) with the good quality straw. These resulted in severe production problems and very expensive machine breakdowns.
Unfortunately very few Maltese farmers are willing to supply clean, field dried and threshed (‘midrus’) straw required to make high quality mushroom compost. As a company we pride ourselves in offering compost and mushrooms to the local market that meet the highest quality standards. We cannot afford parties in our supply chain not to follow suit.
Saviour Gauci
Rabat
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