Support Local! Here’s How Buying Fresh Maltese Produce Will Benefit You AND Your Pocket
Grocery shopping isn’t something we usually think much about, but that needs to change.
Making a few mindful decisions next time you’re buying your weekly fruit and veg fix is capable of helping out a whole bunch of just causes.
To make all this a tad easier for you to process, the team behind Ecopence – Malta’s latest eco-friendly organisation – has listed five of the main reasons why buying fresh, local produce is so important.
1. It’s healthier
The second a vegetable or fruit is sliced into, it starts rotting insanely quickly. But that’s not all.
The rotting process also leads to the degeneration of the product’s vitamins, making the final product that reaches your plate far less nutritious.
So shake off that temptation to buy some pre-shredded salad – believe us, it’s not worth it.
2. It’s cheaper
The team at Ecopence went on a bit of a research trip to some of Malta’s leading supermarkets to compare the prices of fresh, local produce to its imported and pre-packaged counterparts, and what they found was pretty damn crazy.
Fresh carrots, for example, sold at around €1.50 per kilo, but that very same kilo of carrots was selling for more than double the price when frozen. Tinned carrots were also the subject of a pretty high mark-up, costing around €2.20 per kilo, depending on the brand.
3. It’s tastier
The majority of the fresh produce you buy from a local farmer’s market or supermarket is harvested at its prime and is available for purchase within a day or two of picking.
On the other hand, imported produce is often still under-ripe when harvested and sometimes takes longer than a whole week to reach your supermarket shelves. With that being said, there’s no denying that local produce is pretty consistently fresher and tastier.
4. It’s better for the environment
Thousands and thousands of tonnes of plastic make their way to supermarket shelves every year, and it all ends up in our oceans or landfills.
Manufacturing plastic isn’t exactly an environmentally-responsible process either. Billions of barrels of oil are put aside every year to produce the plastic we see on our supermarket shelves – so think twice next time you’ve got your hands on some frozen fruit.
And yes, there’s more.
On average, imported food travels a whopping 2,500 kilometres before it reaches your plate, making the international agricultural process responsible for 44% – 57% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So not worth it.
5. It helps the economy
Now more than ever, helping the local economy is a vital thing to keep in mind.
Whenever you buy local produce, you’ll be supporting local farmers and putting money back into the national economy. Sounds better than funding a millionaire CEO’s next Caribbean vacation, right?
Now take this new-found knowledge and spread it with your vegetable loving pals… for you, your pocket and Malta!