Maltese people living in rural areas of the country consume about 4.5 kilos of rabbit meat per year, with a large majority preferring to source such food from backyard farms rather than commercial ones, a study has shown,

The research was carried out by Francesco Luca Alexander as part of his diploma in agriculture awarded by the University of Malta.

Alexander sought to explore specifically the rabbit-eating habits of traditionally rural communities with strong ties to agriculture and carried out a survey with respondents from Mġarr, Dingli, Żebbuġ, Siġġiewi and Mqabba.

“The future of local rabbit breeders is threatened since they have lost a considerable part of their traditional market and people who used to consume rabbit meat are switching to other meats,” Alexander says.

“However, the results of this survey show that rabbit meat is still frequently consumed, at least on a monthly basis, by most of the Maltese population in the selected rural areas, with prices having no impact on the consumers’ choice.”

More than half of the respondents said they considered poultry to be the healthiest meat for consumption, followed by rabbit at 34 per cent.

Results indicated that rabbit was the third most consumed meat in the areas surveyed, with the majority choosing poultry (68 per cent) followed by beef (11 per cent), with Alexander noting that rabbit sustained the same popularity comparable to similar surveys carried out in 1993.

Some 92 per cent of those surveyed said they consumed rabbit meat while 72 per cent said that their family had a history of rabbit rearing, with the highest percentage coming from Mġarr.

The top reasons given for not consuming rabbit, Alexander found, were a dislike for its taste, people who consider rabbits to be pets, practising vegetarians or vegans and people who have a fear of live rabbits.

All respondents interviewed said they prefer local rabbit meat rather than imported for consumption, with 56 per cent saying the taste of the meat influenced such choice.

When asked which is their preferred cut of rabbit, some 62 per cent mentioned the thighs.

“This may provide a prompt to rabbit breeders to produce rabbits having meatier thighs, to accommodate consumer behaviour,” Alexander observes.

In the areas surveyed, 87 per cent of respondents said they consumed rabbit at least once a month while just over a fifth (21 per cent) said they do so on a weekly basis.

Based on this, Alexander calculates that, with the average rabbit carcass weighing around 1.5 kilos that is typically divided into four portions, the average rabbit consumption of those surveyed averages out to 4.5 kilos per year.

When it comes to purchasing habits, Alexander found that 45 per cent purchase rabbit meat from family, friends or neighbours, while 28 per cent buy directly from farmers. Just under a tenth (9 per cent) said they rear their own rabbits for consumption while 18 per cent bought their rabbit meat from local butchers or supermarkets.

This, Alexander adds, highlights a lack of trust in the commercial supply chain for rabbit meat.

An overwhelming majority (95 per cent) prefer to purchase a home-grown rabbit rather than from a commercial farm.

“The reasons those interviewed gave for choosing home-grown rabbits were based on trust,” Alexander notes.

“They believed that home-grown rabbits would be given feeds that were more natural, like vegetables and hay, and that more attention would be given to the rabbits, leading to more natural growth.”

All evidence suggests that the traditional fenkata is still alive and well in these communities, with 52 per cent saying they preferred to cook a rabbit by frying and 39 per cent in a stew. Some 3 per cent prefer to bake rabbit in the oven while 6 per cent would rather eat rabbit in a spaghetti dish, which could inculcate a preference of minor cuts like loins, shoulders and belly, Alexander says.

However, the traditional rabbit pie, which was the preferred way to consume rabbit in the 1800s, according to previous research, seems to have all but disappeared from consumers’ habits.

Almost eight out of 10 (79 per cent) respondents said they cooked rabbit following traditional family recipes, 18 per cent said they do not follow any recipes while some 2 per cent said they follow recipes found online or in cookbooks.

“Overall, the survey results indicate that Maltese traditions are kept up in different contexts and this will help in transmitting the cultural heritage to new generations, preventing a loss of Maltese identity,” Alexander concludes.