Huge demand for fruit trees

Fruit growers taking advantage of scientific advances have sent demand for stone fruit trees soaring - demand from the Agricultural Research and Development Centre at Ghammieri has more than trebled since 1998, shooting up to 14,090 from 3,753, with peach and nectarine trees leading in popularity.

Moreover, while in 1998 there was no demand for tree rootstock, a demand for 11,718 was the latest to be registered.

The most amazing rise in demand, however, is for grafted vines and vine rootstock - while there were 3,933 requests for grafted vines in 1998, this year the centre has orders for 58,375.

In the case of vine rootstock, the orders reached 66,263, compared to 35,246 in 1998.

The nursery at Ghammieri is the only one in Malta that produces disease- and virus-free tree plants. The disease-free grafted vines and vine rootstock are imported from CIHEAM in Bari, Italy, the institute for agriculture studies in the Mediterranean.

The rise in demand for stone fruit trees came about after growers realised that the grafted trees and rootstock supplied by Ghammieri were disease-resistant and produced an impressive increase in produce and quality.

The rootstock which forms the base of the tree and on which the fruit tree proper is grafted has to suit the climate and soil type.

A strong rootstock ensures a strong tree. Initially, the fruit tree rootstocks were imported but the rootstocks are now propagated at the micropropagation centre in Lija by means of tissue culture in glass jars and planted after they are acclimatised, George Carbone, director of agriculture said.

Traditionally, Maltese growers have used the bitter almond as rootstock. But in time, the trees were being affected by disease, leading to poor yields. This led growers to change over to a new type of rootstock.

The nursery at Ghammieri is based on the propagation of stone fruit trees such as peaches (hawh), plums (ghajn baqar), nectarine (nuciprisk), and apricot (berquq).

The Maltese apple, Tuffieh ta' belludja, has practically died out because of viral diseases and insects.

Rootstock generated at the Lija centre is certified disease-free. The whole process from cell tissue culture to the plant proper takes about a year. The grafted trees need about two years to start yielding fruit.

Growers who bought grafted stone trees and rootstock from Ghammieri soon noted the difference in the amount of produce and the disease resistance of the trees.

But apart from disease-free rootstock, growers also wanted to extend the stone fruit season - just two decades ago, there was only one variety of each of the stone fruit trees, all ready for harvesting at more or less the same time, leading to a glut on the market and a drop in the price that the growers could expect for their produce.

"Over the years, we tried to extend the production calendar. The norm used to be that stone fruit was ripe for harvesting by July and August.

"Through the introduction of early maturing varieties, growers now have a crop in May. There are also late maturing varieties, with the crop maturing in late September and October," Mr Carbone said.

"The success of stone fruit trees is between 70 and 75 per cent, which is a very good rate," Anthony Borg, senior agricultural officer said.

In order to cut down on imports, mother plants of rootstock and grafted vines are being planted in order to start producing plant material in two years' time, Mr Borg said.

Scientifically, there have been international breakthroughs in fruit science, especially when it comes to grapes. For example, today one does not merely speak about Chardonnay but about clones of Chardonnay which would have a marked effect on the type of wine produced, depending on the clone used.

The main wine makers import their own grafted rootstock.

Grafted vine and vine rootstock represent 252 tumoli of land with between 400 and 600 vines per tumolo, which means about 30 hectares of land under vine.

There is a huge demand for grapes both for the table and for wine production.

Seventy per cent of all the commercial wines produced locally are made from grapes imported from various regions in Italy.

The remaining 30 per cent is grown here and consists of Girgentina, the white grape, and Gellewza, the red grape. Consumers are going for quality wines.

"Our aim, especially if Malta joins the EU, is to produce a quality wine.

"The department of agriculture is offering growers a one time grant of Lm450 per tumolo to cover capital expenditure in changing over to cultivating vines.

"Through an EU twinning programme, a number of Italian viticulture experts will be coming to Malta for a year to advise growers.

"And after that, the assistance would be Lm45 per tumolo every year. This programme runs to 2014," Mr Carbone said.

"By the end of 2008, we hope to be able to grow enough grapes locally for two purposes: one to cut down on imports and secondly to be able to expand our minimal wine exports."

The annual grape imports amount to 6,000 tons, which is about 70 per cent of the grapes required for wine making. The grape imports cost about Lm2 million.

"We will shortly be carrying out a DNA analysis on 100 varieties of Girgentina and 100 varieties of Gellewza in order to find out whether any of these varieties is unique to Malta.

"Through these tests we would be able to identify one or two varieties that produce good wine. Through micro propagation, we will carry out the 'cleaning up' of the varieties to make them disease and virus free.

"Hopefully by 2008 these varieties would be cultivated. There are currently 480 hectares under vine cultivation, which works out at about two million vines," Mr Carbone said.

The projection is to have five million vines. In EU member states there is a moratorium until 2010 against the planting of new vines because of an overproduction of wine, particularly the cheaper varieties.

Malta has been granted a concession that cultivation can go up to 1,000 hectares, which works out to about five million vines.