A scientific study commissioned to MISCO as part of a public awareness campaign from the Department of Rural Development resulted clearly that Maltese people prefer buying local produce and are very satisfied with the quality of the fruit and vegetables. This was the first time that this kind of examination took place about the opinions of the Maltese about the local produce. About 300 people were interviewed during the first study which is now published, whilst a number of farmers are being interviewed for a second study.
95% of Maltese are satisfied with the local produce and 74% think that it is good value for money, whilst 93% believe that local produce is of good quality.
71% of the people interviewed think that the local produce is presented in a good manner and 77% think that there is a good variety of local produce on the market.
72.3% of Maltese are aware of whether the produce they buy is local or foreign, whilst 76% also take notice of whether the meat is local or imported. 71.3% prefer buying local fruit, vegetables and meat rather than imported ones. They prefer this because they believe the products to be fresher and more genuine, and because they believe that this helps the local economy. Moreover, 9.3% of Maltese bought more local wine in the past 12 months than they used to
82% of the Maltese population are aware of funds that are offered by the EU to local farmers and 44.3% expect better quality products and better packaging from local farmers because of the EU funds that they can benefit from.
98.9% of those interviewed believe that the local produce has become better over the year, whereas 1.1 % believe that the quality has decreased. 72% of Maltese know that farmers haev EU guidelines about pesticides, artifial fertilisations and proper treatment of animals. 41% of these think that these regulations are being abided by, whereas 24.3% believe that the rules are being ignored. Furthermore, 64.3% of Maltese believe that these guidelines are advantageous for the Maltese economy, whilst 19.3% say that they are not good and 16.3% did not know.
As part of the public awareness campaign, agricultural officials are being guided as to ways of improving communication efforts with farmers as well as the general public. Information was also given to farmers about how they could benefit from their land, and how one ought to register their land in order to be eligible for funds allocated to Malta.
The campaign includes adverts on various media, as well as educational programmes for children. Part of the campaign includes a position paper discussing ways in which the government could improve communication skills with farmers, consumers and the gerneral public.
Farmers have until mid-July to apply for EU funding. Until now, around 40 million Euros have been allocated to agricultural and rural developments. It is estimated that another 80 million Euros are being allocated for similar help to be given between 2007 and 2013.
Parliamentary Secretary for Farming and Fisheries, Dr Francis Agius, stated that the results clearly show the good work of farmers and those in the agricultural sector to promote local produce.
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