An Accusation of Widespread Fraud Sparks Controversy in Spain

Summary

Spain’s olive oil sec­tor is fac­ing tur­moil as Dcoop accuses some bot­tlers of wide­spread fraud by mix­ing olive oil with cheaper prod­ucts, lead­ing to com­pro­mised integrity and a lack of admin­is­tra­tion inter­ven­tion. Despite denials from major orga­ni­za­tions in the indus­try and crit­i­cism from the Spanish gov­ern­ment, Dcoop stands by its accu­sa­tions, cit­ing mar­ket anom­alies and the dif­fi­culty of detect­ing cer­tain types of oil fraud through lab­o­ra­tory analy­sis, empha­siz­ing the need for fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion to pro­tect the rep­u­ta­tion of Spanish olive oil.

The olive oil sec­tor in Spain is in upheaval fol­low­ing accu­sa­tions by Dcoop, a coop­er­a­tive with thou­sands of mem­bers, of unchecked and wide­spread olive oil fraud.

At the height of the olive har­vest, the cooperative’s gen­eral sec­re­tary, Antonio Luque, told El Economista that cer­tain bot­tlers are prof­it­ing by mix­ing olive oil with cheaper prod­ucts such as sun­flower oil.

According to Luque, these adul­ter­ated prod­ucts are then mar­keted nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally as olive oil, com­pro­mis­ing the integrity of Spanish pro­duc­tion.

According to Dcoop’s pres­i­dent, this sce­nario has per­sisted for a long time. ​“We have been silent for 40 years, but we are not going to allow it any­more,” Luque said dur­ing an event orga­nized by the coop­er­a­tive.

“We do not have evi­dence to take them to court, but we do have very solid indi­ca­tions, and we lack an admin­is­tra­tion, both national and regional, will­ing to stop it and put an end to this,” he added. ​“The admin­is­tra­tion has to do some­thing because fraud is not being mon­i­tored.”

Luque fur­ther claimed that ​“major olive oil fraud was invented in Italy. The issue is already under con­trol there, thanks to trace­abil­ity. Yet, fraud has now moved to Spain.”

Dcoop did not name spe­cific oper­a­tors involved and offered no proof of the alleged fraud.

Luque’s remarks sparked imme­di­ate responses from Anierac and Asoliva, the major orga­ni­za­tions rep­re­sent­ing olive oil bot­tlers and exporters. Both orga­ni­za­tions vehe­mently denied the accu­sa­tions.

“First of all, we reject it out­right. The Spanish indus­try is a capa­ble sec­tor that com­plies with all the para­me­ters required by European leg­is­la­tion and, addi­tion­ally, is mon­i­tored by all admin­is­tra­tions,” said Primitivo Fernández, Anierac’s direc­tor.

“I find this type of state­ment, which is not sup­ported by any evi­dence, to be highly irre­spon­si­ble,” added Rafael Pico Lapuente, Asoliva’s exec­u­tive direc­tor. ​“If you have any evi­dence, you should go to court and report it.”

Both orga­ni­za­tions high­lighted their col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Spanish gov­ern­ment at all lev­els to improve con­trols and reg­u­la­tions con­tin­u­ally.

They also warned of poten­tial legal action against what they described as ​“false accu­sa­tions.” In their view, such state­ments ​“aim to dis­credit the pres­tige of Spanish olive oil com­pared to oil from other coun­tries and attack a sec­tor of enor­mous sig­nif­i­cance and tra­di­tion in Spain, which is a fun­da­men­tal pil­lar for the coun­try’s econ­omy and cul­ture.”

Dcoop’s accu­sa­tions also drew crit­i­cism from the national gov­ern­ment. Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Luis Planas warned that these claims could dam­age the olive oil indus­try.

“These state­ments seem par­tic­u­larly unfor­tu­nate and irre­spon­si­ble to me because they call into ques­tion the sec­tor’s rep­u­ta­tion,” he said.

Planas empha­sized the rig­or­ous con­trols on label­ing and the organolep­tic test­ing of olive oil prod­ucts, which are con­ducted rou­tinely.

He also high­lighted the impor­tance of reg­u­la­tions passed in 2021 to restrict the use of the terms vir­gin and extra vir­gin in blends of olive oil and other seed oils and pro­hibit bot­tlers from mix­ing olive oils from dif­fer­ent crop years. The reg­u­la­tion update aimed to enhance prod­uct trace­abil­ity across pro­duc­tion and sales chan­nels.

Planas cau­tioned Dcoop that with­out pro­vid­ing ​“names and sur­names” of the alleged cul­prits, their accu­sa­tions risk under­min­ing ​“a sec­tor that does not deserve it.”

In a sub­se­quent state­ment, Dcoop reit­er­ated its accu­sa­tions, cit­ing anom­alies in the mar­ket that sug­gest fraud is indeed occur­ring.

“In this cam­paign, there have been instances where lam­pante oil (which can­not be bot­tled because it is of poor qual­ity and must be refined) has been much more expen­sive than refined oil, despite the indus­trial costs of refin­ing,” the coop­er­a­tive wrote.

“This defies mar­ket logic,” the coop­er­a­tive added. ​“Lampante is the oil pro­duced in mills that can­not be bot­tled due to poor qual­ity and must undergo refin­ing. Once refined, it is mixed with vir­gin or extra vir­gin oil and then bot­tled as ​‘olive oil,’”

Dcoop also noted the dif­fi­culty of detect­ing cer­tain types of oil fraud through lab­o­ra­tory analy­sis, echo­ing the recent words of Italian anti-fraud experts.

“All oils share cer­tain fatty acid com­po­si­tions,” the coop­er­a­tive wrote. ​“For exam­ple, sun­flower oil con­tains oleic acid,” also the preva­lent fat in olive oil.

“We have con­ducted stud­ies reveal­ing oils on the mar­ket with ana­lyt­i­cal para­me­ters con­sis­tently at their lim­its, which is nat­u­rally impos­si­ble and can only be explained by mix­ing dif­fer­ent oils. These oils meet the stan­dards but exhibit unusual ana­lyt­i­cal val­ues, sug­gest­ing manip­u­la­tion,” it added.

“We are not dis­cussing a health risk here but authen­tic­ity, purity and ensur­ing that every­thing in a bot­tle of olive oil gen­uinely comes from olives,” Dcoop said.

“We have clues but no con­crete evi­dence against any oper­a­tor; oth­er­wise, we would have reported it,” the state­ment con­cluded. ​“However, it is clear that this must be inves­ti­gated to defend the good image of Spanish olive oil.”

• El Economista
• RTVE
• Infobae