Malta: Farmers were close to bankruptcy because of ToBRFV

Farmers have expressed serious concern over an imported virus, ToBRFV, spreading in Malta and threatening to decimate crops in the all-important tomato sector. ToBRFV first appeared in Jordan in 2014, and since then it has unfortunately been in production worldwide. It seems to be permanent in most countries of Europe and North America, posing a serious economic threat to the plant population. Various companies are constantly working on breeding resistant varieties, but due to the virus's extraordinary mutation ability, this seems to be a never-ending battle for the time being. Ruben Montebello, a full-time farmer for the past decade who left the tourism industry to work in agriculture, lost five greenhouses of tomatoes to ToBRFV (tomato brown wilt). Farmers' association Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi called on the authorities to do everything possible to try to contain the virus in order to limit its "social damage". Although the virus poses a serious threat to tomatoes and other crops in ...