Potato farmer Michael Caruana, a major exporter, is struggling to expand his business due to skyrocketing land prices. Now, he fears losing the land he currently rents.
Like Caruana, many farmers find themselves in difficulty as they are unable to afford the exorbitant land prices.
Farmers told Times of Malta that one tumolo (1,100sqm) of land is worth around €100,000. This, however, can vary from €80,000 to way over €100,000 depending on whether or not the field has access to water, electricity or a room.
This estimation is significantly higher than Eurostat’s estimate, which said that the average price per hectare of arable land – there are about nine tumoli in one hectare – in Malta was just over €283,000 in 2023.
The Eurostat report showed that Malta’s arable land is the most expensive by some margin, costing 24 times the EU average.
In recent years, farmers have raised concerns about how selling arable land for recreational purposes has caused the cost of these plots of land to skyrocket.
Last September, 24 agricultural societies and the Chamber of Architects appealed to the government to put an end to the sale of arable land for recreational use.
Many people know Caruana as the potato farmer who professed his love for growing potatoes, in a video interview that went viral in 2013.
Over a decade later, Caruana has a thriving business that exports tonnes of potatoes to the Netherlands but he is still unable to afford to buy more land due to the exorbitant prices.
“Land that is being sold to people for recreational uses… they want the place to look agricultural but then they use it to organise parties. The government is doing absolutely nothing,” he said.
As its not feasible for Caruana to buy more land, he is opting to rent land to grow potatoes for his business.
With rising costs, Caruana now fears that he will lose the land he is renting, if the landowner decides to stop renting and sell it to the highest bidder.
“[Landlords] have already hinted that they might increase the rent,” Caruana said.
Land is being sold to the highest bidder
Melvin Agius, who has been a farmer his whole life, is in a similar situation.
“The last I bought was around 10 years ago… Before I used to dream of buying more but not anymore,” he said. Even the expense of buying one tumolo of land does not make financial sense for him.
Agius explained that the land is being sold at a much higher price because most landowners are not selling one tumolo at once but they are usually dividing the land and selling it at a much higher price for people to use this land for recreational purposes.
“If it’s being used for recreational uses, then the owner should be fined. But the government won’t do this,” he said.
Agius said if a farmer wants to work full-time they would need to be ready to invest at least €1.5 million to buy enough land – around 12 tumoli – as well as all the machinery needed. However, he added that chances are the farmer will only bring in around €1,500 a month, which does not justify the hefty investment.
Vineyard farmer cannot grow, despite high demand
Part-time vineyard farmer Jimmy Vassallo – who has been in the fields for 21 years – dreams of working full-time but, as land prices remain high, Vassallo is forced to juggle his job at the bank with his true passion.
“I would like to go full-time and expand but it’s impossible at these prices,” Vassallo said.
Meanwhile, even land owned by the government is being used by people who are not “genuine farmers”, Vassallo said. Besides the issue of private land that is being sold to the highest bidder, Vassallo appealed for government-owned land to be trusted to producers who can ensure professional cultivation of agricultural products
Although there is an extremely high demand from Maltese wine companies for vineyard farmers to cultivate more grapes, Vassallo said that he is very “limited”.
Marsovin’s vineyard manager, Chris Cremona said that “supply is much lower than demand”.
“The amount of wine that is made from Maltese grapes is decreasing, despite the high demand,” he said.
Cremona said that there is a lot of land, even land owned by the government, that is not being used productively.
“We need more land for our farmers to produce more grapes,” he said.
Cremona said a meeting with the government last year discussed the possibility of subsidies for farmers but not enough was done.