Malta hog slaughter slow down

Malta’s pig farmers are struggling to keep up with hog quotas, driving distributors to pork imports, the Times of Malta reports.

Malta swine industry is facing tough times and keeping up with hog slaughter quotas has driven some pig farmers to slaughtering their sows. In 2004 hog slaugher quota was set as 2,400 pigs a week, this has now dropped to 1,400 pigs slaughtered per week, a drop in production of nearly 50% in eight years time.

Labour Party agricultural spokesman Anthony Agius Decelis said that pig farmers were having difficulty in keeping to the reduced quota, and blamed poor planning and the free market strategies of Malta’s Minister of Rural Affairs, George Pullicino.