On July 1, the new fresh fruit and vegetables standards (commonly known as the ‘wonky’ vegetable standards) came into force. However, the Ministry of Agriculture has not bothered to tell us what this is all about and how it will affect local producers and consumers. From 1 July 2009 34 Commission Regulations setting out specific EU Marketing Standards for fresh fruit and vegetable were repealed and replaced by one new Commission Regulation. These changes are taking place under Commission Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1221/2008.
Under this law specific marketing standards will be retained for apples, citrus fruit, kiwi, lettuce, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, table grapes and tomatoes, while traders offering fresh fruit and vegetables for sale are responsible for ensuring the products meet minimum quality requirements and are correctly as well as clearly labelled with the required information.
This means that in these fruit and vegetable products information as to class, sizing or variety have to be provided on the label.
As the produce is covered by the General (not specific) Marketing Standard, the requirement is to clearly label the origin. But there is no requirement to label class, sizing or variety. Sometimes I feel like I am not living in an EU member state or that some of the EU laws do not apply to us because we still see nothing of this sort of labelling attached to our produce.
Under regulation 1580/2007 (as amended), member states could apply for a derogation to be exempt from the specific marketing standards products presented for retail sale to consumers for their personal use, and labelled “product intended for processing” or with any other equivalent wording and intended for processing. We do not know what Malta has done. As I said, we are always kept in the dark.
In the EU there is a system whereby every member state and every organization can apply to have its products protected. European Law allows us to do this, but unfortunately we have so far applied only for the Gozo lumi-laring (sweet orange), which application is still pending.
Whilst other countries in the EU hastened to have their products protected under the three EU schemes, and exploit this protection worldwide to show the world how good and unique their products are, we are still lagging behind in that we have so far only applied (no approval yet) for one product.
These three EU schemes are known as PDO (protected designation of origin), PGI (protected geographical indication) and TSG (traditional speciality guaranteed), and the aim is to promote and protect names of quality agricultural products and foodstuffs.
Malta has the logos of these three schemes in Maltese and we find that the PDO in Malta is Denominazzjoni Protetta ta’ Origini, the PGI is Indikazzjoni Geografika Protetta and the TSG is Specialita Tradizzjonali Garantita.
These EU schemes encourage diverse agricultural production, protect product names from misuse and limitation, and help consumers by giving them information concerning the specific character of the products. So that PDO covers agricultural products and foodstuffs which are produced, processed and prepared in a given geographical area using recognized know-how. Examples of PDO products are Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale (area around Modena), Mozzarella di Bufala (Campana) or Parma ham.
This is regulated by regulation 510/2006 and the implementing regulation 1898/2006.
The PGI covers agricultural products and foodstuffs closely linked to the geographical area. At least one of the stages of production, processing or preparing takes place in the area. For example Mortadella di Bologna is a IGP product tied to its territory by reputation while still requiring production to take place in the greater Bologna area to carry the seal.
The TSG highlights traditional character, either in the composition or means of production and applied to traditional specialities. This is regulated by regulation 509/2006 and the implementing regulation 1216/2007.
What has also instigated me to write about this subject is an article I read lately in the Italian press announcing that recently the potatoes from Bologna have been certified as PDO. I immediately asked myself, how is it that we have been renowned for our good potatoes – so much so that in Holland, our potatoes are considered to be the king of potatoes – and yet we have not been able to get the PDO certification from Brussels?
I browsed through the internet and found that we have not even applied for any Maltese product except for the lumi-lumincell of Gozo.
This will be give you an indication of how much we treasure our local produce. We have been in the EU for five years now and yet we are still not able to sell ourselves and our produce. We know that we have very good potatoes, very good pork, very good oranges, very good honey, very good olive oil (the lowest in cholesterol) and yet we allow our produce to die a natural death by replacing with foreign ones which are not necessarily better than ours.
I cannot understand how the agricultural and meat producers and their organizations work in Malta. They are either left astray or whoever is supposed to be organizing them is not looking after their interests. Otherwise how can you explain the fact that they have not lifted a finger and made an attempt to protect any of their members’ produce?
We know that our pork is the best, and yet we know also (and they know as well) that we are importing pork from abroad and it is being sold as fresh local meat. However, we never hear any protests from these organizations. They know that the pork producers in Malta are now a dying breed and yet they are not doing anything to stand up and protect their bread and butter.
In Malta there is no definition of ‘fresh’ and whether it is imported or local, it is still considered as ‘fresh’ but the consumers are sometimes being fooled into believing that they are buying local meat when in fact they are not.
The EU issued a Green Paper on EU agricultural product quality policy and the green paper is the first step towards a new law. Only two organizations from Malta responded, the Assocjazzjoni tal-Bdiewa (ATB) and the Malta Organic Agriculture Movement.
The Assocjazzjoni tal-Bdiewa criticized the new law which came into force on July l, in that it is detrimental to the local produce. We do not know what Malta is doing or has done to protect our famers, breeders and producers.
We hear a lot about funding and subsidies from EU to farmers, but our farmers do not live on reconstruction of rubble walls or better working environments for their produce, but on finding a market for their produce and in protecting our products.
Unfortunately we are putting the cart before the horse!
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From 1 July 2009 34 Commission Regulations setting out specific EU Marketing Standards for fresh fruit and vegetable were repealed and replaced by one new Commission Regulation. These changes are taking place under Commission Regulation (EC) No 1580/2007 as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1221/2008. 
