Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries Statistics Unit
1.3. Contact name
Ronald Tanti
1.4. Contact person function
Head of Unit
1.5. Contact mail address
National Statistics Office,
Lascaris, Valletta VLT2000,
Malta.
1.6. Contact email address
ronald.tanti@gov.mt
1.7. Contact phone number
+356 2599 7333
1.8. Contact fax number
2.1. Metadata last certified
1 August 2023
2.2. Metadata last posted
1 August 2023
2.3. Metadata last update
1 August 2023
3.1. Data description
The collected statistics for the country cover the following data:
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic crop area (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic crop production from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animalorigin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
In the case of Malta, the following data is collected:
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic crop area (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic crop production from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Up till 2022, the following are not present:
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animal origin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
Calendar year 2022
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
The Agriculture Directorate (AD) is the Competent Authority in Malta responsible for the implementation of the organic production and organic labelling regulations. The other entity involved is the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) which is the only Control Authority recognised for organic in Malta. The MCCAA is responsible for the collection, validation and compiling of organic production statistics directly from the organic operators.
Thus, each year through an agreement between the two entities, AD communicates with MCCAA to provide the data on the organic operators certified under MCCAA as requested in the template provided by EUROSTAT. The AD together with the National Statistics Office (NSO) analyse the data received from MCCAA before transmitting the data to the Commission (Eurostat). Following the transmission of the data to the Commission, if any queries arise on the data transmitted, NSO together with AD in consultation with MCCAA provides a consolidated reply to the Commission.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
The data concerning organic production is compiled on a yearly basis through an online form by the organic operators certified under the Control Authority. The data is shared with the Competent Authority and NSO through email and reporting to the Commission (EUROSTAT) via EDAMIS portal.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
At National level:
Chapter 586 Data Protection Act implements and further specifies the relevant provision of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC.
At European level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
All data about organic which are reported to Eurostat are not confidential.
8.1. Release calendar
For the time being, no organic data are published, either separately or as a part of other more general publications/online database. We are planning to start publishing organic data in 2024.
8.2. Release calendar access
For the time being, no organic data are published, either separately or as a part of other more general publications/online database. We are planning to start publishing organic data in 2024.
8.3. Release policy - user access
For the time being, no organic data are published, either separately or as a part of other more general publications/online database. We are planning to start publishing organic data in 2024.
Not applicable.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not applicable.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Not applicable.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Not applicable.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Not applicable.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Tabular and aggregated organic statistics are sent to Eurostat through a secure software application called EDAMIS.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable
10.6. Documentation on methodology
The Control Authority documents all the work processes and procedures involved in the compilation for organic data. Such documents are available for internal purposes.
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
Not applicable.
10.7. Quality management - documentation
Not applicable.
11.1. Quality assurance
The Control Authority MCCAA is certified to ISO9001:2015. In addition, the organic unit within MCCAA uses an established management system in accordance with ISO17021-1 to provide the organic certification service. Therefore, the MCCAA has a quality manual for organic farming certification. This contains several policies that address the requirements of the applicable regulations and MCCAA requirements. In addition, several procedures were also documented to support the said policies. In particular, one of the procedures defines the process monitoring of obtaining data from the certified operators. The MCCAA also holds three types of internal audits on the quality system covering Compliance and Risks, Witnessing of Inspections and sampling and Management system (including data collection and validation).
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Not applicable
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main users of organic statistics include:
media;
policy-makers;
academics;
Eurostat;
other international organisations;
the data suppliers themselves; and the
general public.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not applicable.
12.3. Completeness
In general, the content of the statistical data satisfies the data-requirements on the subject.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
100%
13.1. Accuracy - overall
There are a number of difficulties in collecting such data namely:
1) Due to the small size of the operators (producers), 100% consistency and reliability of records cannot be ensured;
2) Producers plant a variety of crops at the same time in the same field and therefore when they measure the planted area, they provide an estimate figure;
3) Small fluctuations in the number of certified operators may lead to significant changes in the yearly statistics;
4) Digitalisation at operators’ levels (in case of producers) is still lacking.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable. Data collection is census based.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable. Data collection is census based.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Main sources of non-sampling error relate to measurement and processing errors. Measurement errors are minimised through various cross-checks across time as well as through several automatic validations and processing. Any captured data is invariably rechecked by the competent authority and the NSO.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Not applicable.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Measurement errors are minimised through various cross-checks across time as well as through several automatic validations and processing.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
0%
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
0%
13.3.4. Processing error
A series of checks (including automatic and manual validation checks) are in place all along the compilation process in order to minimise the processing errors.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
See concepts below.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Data is available beginning of June, five months after the end of the reference year.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
End of June, six months after the end of the reference year.
14.2. Punctuality
See concepts below.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
Organic data for reference year 2022 was collected on time and delivered to Eurostat 10 days after the deadline.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Not applicable.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Data is comparable from 2007 onwards.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
For the following datasets, the data is comparable from 2018 onwards:
Certified registered organic operators
Certified registered organic processors
Certified organic crop area
Certified organic crop production
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
For the Integrated Farm Statistics, the detailed data collected by the Control Authority is used and therefore organic data is comparable.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
Not applicable
It is estimated that 0.25 FTE is taken to compile the organic statistics with the major cost components being: Ensuring that the operators provide the correct data and analysis of the data.
The latest significant efforts were to design and develop an online data collection system implemented in 2021. This also included information sessions for operators on its use.
Such system has been proved to be more effective and efficient with no significant burden on the operators.
17.1. Data revision - policy
When data revision is required, the relevant stakeholders are consulted.
17.2. Data revision - practice
No revisions are planned.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
The data is collected through an online from that is filled directly by the organic operators certified by the Control Authority.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
The Control Authority requests data from the organic operators by sending them an email notification that contains a link to the online form. The notification is sent in February of year n+1, which is followed by a number of reminders. When the filled forms are received, they are checked for completeness. If any data is missing, the organic operator is contacted.
18.4. Data validation
Organic data is checked, rechecked, and validated throughout the collection, compilation and presentation processes.
18.5. Data compilation
Once all the organic data is collected, it is imported in a spreadsheet and validated. The output of the spreadsheet consists of aggregated data that is consequently inputted manually in the Eurostat template. The reason for this final stage manual input is to make the last verification of the data.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
0%
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
No further comments.
The collected statistics for the country cover the following data:
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic crop area (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic crop production from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animalorigin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
There are a number of difficulties in collecting such data namely:
1) Due to the small size of the operators (producers), 100% consistency and reliability of records cannot be ensured;
2) Producers plant a variety of crops at the same time in the same field and therefore when they measure the planted area, they provide an estimate figure;
3) Small fluctuations in the number of certified operators may lead to significant changes in the yearly statistics;
4) Digitalisation at operators’ levels (in case of producers) is still lacking.
In the case of Malta, the following data is collected:
Certified registered organic operators (referring to their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of operators)
Certified registered organic processors who manufacture organic products (as their main or secondary activity) (expressed in number of processors)
Certified organic crop area (under conversion and fully converted) (expressed in hectares)
Certified organic crop production from fully converted area (expressed in 1 000 kg)
Up till 2022, the following are not present:
Certified organic livestock (expressed in heads of live animals)
Production of certified organic products of animal origin (expressed in 1 000 kg of carcass weight and in thousand eggs)
Production of certified organic milk products (Produced on farms or Processed on farms or by dairy enterprises) and Honey and products of bee-keeping (expressed in 1 000 kg of products obtained)
Certified organic aquaculture sold by producers (expressed in 1 000 kg live weight)
Once all the organic data is collected, it is imported in a spreadsheet and validated. The output of the spreadsheet consists of aggregated data that is consequently inputted manually in the Eurostat template. The reason for this final stage manual input is to make the last verification of the data.
The data is collected through an online from that is filled directly by the organic operators certified by the Control Authority.
