Today’s issue concerns the agricultural sector. It may seem to be a very sectorial issue considering the current discussion on the removal of levies for the agri-business.

However, the survival of the agricultural sector depends on a thorough overhaul of current practices. One way of reforming the sector is to gear local agriculture towards producing grapes only, which would benefit the farmers and the wine industry at the same time. However, there are counter arguments to this from the ecological aspect.

The issue was proposed to two people, one each from the wine industry and a representative of farmers. Unfortunately, the farmers’ side considered the issue to be too narrow and never came back to us.

Vines for wines

By Bill Hermitage

I think it would be foolish for any country to rely ‘solely’ on ‘any’ one crop. On the other hand I think it is equally foolish to try and grow a bit of everything. Surely the most important factor for the farmer is that there is someone who wants to buy what he’s growing. I think the ideal solution would be for ‘Malta’ to gain a quality reputation for specialising in a hand full of certain crops. Ideally these should be crops which we know grow well and have some ‘added value’ because of their specific Maltese characteristics. But definitely wine grapes should be one of them. The top quality wine being produced at present from Malta grown grapes already meets these criteria.

For the grape growers to provide just what the wine industry needs ‘today’ they would only need to plant 8.5% of available agricultural land, which amounts to 1,000 hectares out of 12,000.

So the idea of Malta being covered ‘solely’ in vines will never be a reality. The survival of the Maltese wine industry, as with any industry, demands that it be as cost effective and efficient as possible. The only way to achieve this is to source our raw materials – grapes - locally. There are obvious savings not just on the logistics and cost but most importantly on quality. I have yet to taste an Italian wine made from Syrah or Merlot that is as good as the ones made from these varieties grown here.

The Maltese wine industry, without a doubt, is where it is today because of the innovative decision taken by the islands’ leading winemakers to make wine from imported grapes. The result is that there is a substantial market locally for quality wines that would not have been available to the consumer if the wine makers had had to rely on local produce only. The next giant leap for the industry will be to become self sufficient by growing all its grapes locally. Then the third major step will take place, which will be the export of Maltese wines on a commercial scale, and then ‘hopefully’ we might need some more vineyards. But that would be a nice problem to have!

The bottom line is that for the last 14 years Maltese winemakers have been spending well over Lm1 million annually on imported grapes because there are not enough grown locally. The demand for the consumption of these wines not only exists, but is steadily growing. At the end of the day the winemakers can only ‘shout’ so much. Inevitably it will be up to the farmers and the agricultural department to make viticulture growth happen at the desired pace. Until then, sadly, the money will keep going to Italian farmers.Mr Hermitage is Associate Director at Emmanuel Delicata Winemaker Ltd