Mr Caruana helping to work the fields aged four.

The young farmer who gained popularity over the past weeks after featuring in an online video about potato harvesting in Malta remained undisturbed by the criticism it received.

“I just took the criticism positively as it gave the video a push. On the other hand, those who praised it were promoting the Maltese crop, and not just mine,” Michael Caruana told Times of Malta from his garage in Qrendi, where he was sorting potatoes with relatives.

He has been working in the potato industry for as long as he can remember.

“Whenever someone asks me how long I’ve been working in the sector, I tell them I’m 25 years old and that is all experience,” he beamed.

Mr Caruana inherited the trade from his maternal grandfather Luigi Muscat, who grew crops in Ħal Far, limits of Gudja, to feed his own family.

In the Netherlands they compare a shipment of Maltese potatoes to a shipment of gold

Potato harvesting was then passed on to his uncle Salvu and mother Victoria, and today he manages the exportation of the crop.

Mr Caruana goes to the Netherlands every year in September to choose the seed potato, and he started exporting directly (without a middleman) to the country a year ago.

In 2012 he exported five containers, weighing some 28 tons each, and is hoping to send six or seven containers this year.

Although sowing and harvesting is done with machinery, potatoes across all the seven hectares (70 tomna) are hand-picked. They are then taken to the garage to be brushed, given a last thorough check and packaged.

The process requires the help of Mr Caruana’s relatives, including his father Andrew.

Even his girlfriend Graziella Schembri pitches in.

The crop is sent to Jansen Dongen, one of the top suppliers of vegetable products for supermarket chains in the Netherlands and Germany.

Asked why a Dutch company would go through the tedious process of importing potatoes from Malta, Mr Caruana said the Maltese climate gives the crop a palate that cannot be found elsewhere in the world.

The soil in Qrendi does not contain clay, while its reddish colour gives the crop a golden tint.

The first Maltese exported potatoes were grown in Qrendi, he noted.

He speaks about the crop with passion and knows the story of each product from beginning to end.

“Whenever I’m in the Netherlands and I tell someone I am a Maltese farmer, they praise the Maltese potato. They compare a shipment of Maltese potatoes to a shipment of gold... they know they will not find it elsewhere. In fact, the Maltese potatoes are among the most expensive.”

In the Netherlands, potatoes are selected and packaged in bags carrying the Maltese cross, a picture of the Grand Harbour and a horse-drawn cab.

A slogan in Dutch encourages the consumer to open the bag to get a taste of Malta.

Mr Caruana’s venture gained popularity through a video by Duerinck Productions, carrying the Air Malta logo, which two days ago had more than 145,000 views.

In the clip, Mr Caruana romanticises the cultivation of potatoes, going to lengths to explain that potato harvesting runs in his family’s blood, and each crop is grown with so much passion that it breaks their heart to part from it.

He puts into words the authenticity of this home-grown, hand-picked vegetable that tastes of “the sea, the church and the sun” – distinctive Maltese features.

The initial reaction, mostly from Maltese viewers, generated a series of memes picking on the young farmer for his broken English and for making a fool of the Maltese.

But the reaction, which surprised the producers themselves, soon shifted when foreigners praised the Maltese crop and fellow islanders challenged the critics.

Mr Caruana learned the video was uploaded when friends told him it had gone viral.

But the young man was not angry – if anything, the criticism made the video more popular.

“After all, the promotion was not just for myself, but for all of Malta, because I spoke about the Maltese potato.”