It’s a bit difficult to comprehend the profitability for Alf Mizzi & Sons on food imports for 2021 because their accounts are incomplete. Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba has submitted an official complaint to the EU Commission where he alleges that large food importers in Malta are abusing their monopoly position. I am not saying that Alex Agius Saliba is right, but he makes a good point, as we also lack data to understand the situation thoroughly.
At face value, and with the little information provided by their accounts, the profitability of Alf Mizzi & Sons Marketing (Ltd.) for 2021 increased, and in fact, this is why the shareholders may have been confident enough to pay themselves a total of €1.5 million in dividends. This was, however less than the dividends they paid to themselves in 2020 amounting to €2.4 million. What’s strange about their accounts is that their gross sales are lower in 2021 compared to 2020, but their exact figures are clouded by a cacophony of entries and a lack of data. This would be impossible because the price volume of the food imports for 2021 has been bigger than in 2020 by at least 9% according to World Bank statistics.
Here’s what supposedly are the gross sales for food distribution in Malta of Alf Mizzi and & Sons Marketing in 2020 and 2021.
If you would actually take their net profit from their accounts and calculate the profitability from their core food distribution activities, the rate of profit for 2021 would be higher compared with 2020, but this is also unclear in their accounts.
It is in the public interest if there is a better picture of the food importation market in Malta so as to understand why prices keep rising, and I will probably be giving this issue more work even by sending questions to Alf Mizzi & Sons. Large food distributors would have no problem being scrutinised if they are genuinely challenged by external economic conditions.
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