`European Commission OKs Payments for Six Months of Olive Oil Storage - Olive Oil Times
Enter keywords and hit Go →
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

European Commission OKs Payments for Six Months of Olive Oil Storage

By Julie Butler
Sep. 29, 2011 16:31 UTC
Summary Summary

The European Commission has announced pri­vate stor­age aid for up to 100,000 tons of Spanish vir­gin olive oil, trig­gered by falling prices in Spain. The aid will pro­vide relief for pro­duc­ers and mills, with a stor­age period of six months before the oil can be rein­tro­duced to the mar­ket after the next har­vest.

European Commissioner Dacian Cioloş announced today private storage aid enabling up to 100,000 tons of Spanish virgin olive oil to be stored for six months.

The European Commission announced today that it will pro­vide pri­vate stor­age aid enabling up to 100,000 tons of Spanish vir­gin olive oil to be stored for six months.

The aid trig­ger level for vir­gin olive oil is 1.71 €/kg. When the price paid to pro­duc­ers in Spain fell to an aver­age of 1.691 €/kg for the week end­ing September 11 it pro­voked renewed calls for the E.C. aid to be intro­duced urgently.

EU Agriculture & Rural Development Commissioner Dacian Cioloş said this after­noon that he had decided to allow the aid ​“in order to help the sec­tor address some of its short-term prob­lems. By pro­vid­ing a six-month stor­age period I believe that we will not adversely affect the mar­ket at the start of the new sea­son.”

“At the same stage, we will have to look at the more medium to long-term struc­tural prob­lems, and I will be com­ing for­ward with a con­crete action plan on this in the com­ing weeks.”

The stored vol­ume will not be allowed to come back on the mar­ket until after the end of the 2011/2012 har­vest, by which time it is hoped that prices will have increased. In com­ing weeks the E. C.will open a ten­der process for the stor­age of the oil.

Spain’s Minister of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, Rosa Aguilar, said the intro­duc­tion of the aid was ​“an extremely impor­tant step for Spain, which pro­duces 80 per­cent of vir­gin olive oil in the EU”. It would pro­vide a boost for 500,000 pro­duc­ers and 1,700 mills, she said.

Agrarian orga­ni­za­tions FAECA and COAG said the step should have been taken months ago. FAECA said it was nev­er­the­less wel­come as it would ​“help pro­vide some relief for Andalusian pro­duc­ers.”

COAG said the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion was ​“unsus­tain­able after three sea­sons sell­ing below pro­duc­tion cost.”

This is a break­ing news arti­cle. Check back for updates.

More articles on:  , ,

Advertisement

Related Articles