Breaking: Malta To Aid Food Importers To Prevent Price Hikes And Ensure Adequate Supply
Malta will grant its major food importers financial aid to prevent price hikes and to ensure the island is adequately stocked in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Robert Abela has announced.
Addressing a PL rally this evening, Abela confirmed that the government has just struck a deal with the country’s major importers of wheat, cereals and nuts.
Without providing any details, he said the deal will see the government provide importers with “the necessary liquidity” to bulk up storage capacity at the Kordin Grain Terminal and to prevent food products such as bread and milk from becoming more expensive.
“We eliminated the risk of a lack of supply and a rise in prices for the coming months,” he said.
Abela drew parallels between the reaction of international markets reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
“Just like in March 2020, countries started restricting the exportation of wheat and cereals, supply decreased and prices increased, exactly identical to what happened at the start of the pandemic,” he said.
“We used the same principles that we learned to apply so well after two years of the pandemic to ensure the impact of inflation will be as minimal as possible.”
Abela’s intervention is similar to a proposal the Nationalist Party put forward last September to counter inflation, when it called for a €40 million state fund to help importers deal with the large increase in the cost of transporting goods to and from Malta.
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