[3] Qormi is the main city for bread making in Malta, with a large number of bakeries.

During the rule of the Knights Hospitaller, it was known as Casal Fornaro meaning the bakers' town.

Some of the earliest descriptive accounts of Malta note the dependence of the island's inhabitants on bread for survival.

[5] The impact of the British colonial government's liberalisation of the import of grain in 1837 and its failure to provide basic food provisions in the aftermath of World War I are both factors believed to be linked to the Sette Giugno riots.

[6][7] There are a number of idioms in the Maltese language relating to bread as the basis of survival.