Delegating food supply to others “is madness”, French President Emanuel Macron said recently. “We have to take back control.” In this time of uncertainty, that’s what many countries are scrambling to do.
Macron’s call would be even more fitting if applied to a nation, like Malta, which is so highly dependent on imported food.
With consumer preference tilting heavily towards the convenience and cost advantages of supermarkets, the vast majority of items on the shelves of this country’s supermarket chains are foreign brands. Consumer taste is skewed towards imported produce and most households no longer have the ability, patience or time to use fresh ingredients, demanding processed food instead, the bulk of it imported.
As a result, local food production rarely goes beyond fresh produce, save for milk products, processed tomatoes and a few other minor goods. Even in the fresh produce sections of supermarkets, fruit and vegetables imported from abroad are often all that is to be seen.
As local farmers struggle to stay afloat in this sea of imported produce, issues connected to land entitlement, the abandonment of agricultural fields to urbanisation and a drastic drop in the number of young farmers have all affected production capacity and supply.
At a time of growing prosperity and international stability – which we have taken so for granted – our neglected and weakened agriculture sector does not appear to have figured very highly in calculations about how ‘well’ our GDP-obsessed country is doing. But in a time of crisis such as this, when global supply chains are suddenly under strain, a weak farming sector heavily impinges on the country’s food security and sovereignty. Malta is suddenly highly vulnerable to global trade dynamics.
Concern is growing that cross-border food trade will be increasingly affected by logistical disruptions in the coming weeks. Many countries in full or semi-lockdown are also experiencing a shortage of farm hands to help in the harvest, leading to a significant decline in output. To make matters worse, some countries have started hoarding food for internal needs – a practice not uncommon in difficult times.
Furthermore, food production in the farms and fields does not adjust immediately to shocks. The crops to be grown, the products to be sold and the quantities to be produced are established by the farmer two to four months before harvest.
Decisions on what and how much to produce were taken by the farmers before the COVID-19 outbreak.
If this crisis stretches out for too long and disrupts trade, Malta’s agriculture sector, so heavily eroded over the past 20 years, would struggle to offer the nation a buffer to all these risks.
It is not for lack of trying on the part of the farmers. They are doing what they can to continue producing. The government’s decision to grant them permission to sell directly to consumers, following the huge knock they have taken from the closure of restaurants and restrictions imposed on their markets, should have helped a small percentage of them able to adapt fairly quickly to new consumer demands such as delivery and online presence.
It is time, though, for the country to face the facts and state the obvious, as Macron did, and admit to how non-resilient we are in terms of food security. As the government acts big to safeguard the economy, it also needs to think big to protect and strengthen our local food supply.
The coronavirus crisis is a reminder of the fallacy of thinking it will never happen to us.