Spanish Black Olives Exports to the U.S. Continue to Fall

Summary

The European Commission will not com­pen­sate black table olive pro­duc­ers in Spain for their legal expenses related to com­bat­ing U.S. tar­iffs, which have caused a sig­nif­i­cant decline in exports to the United States. European Commission offi­cials, includ­ing John Clarke, empha­sized that the tar­iffs are unac­cept­able and vio­late World Trade Organization reg­u­la­tions, and that sup­port may be avail­able through the European Union’s rural devel­op­ment fund­ing.

Producers of black table olives in Spain will not receive com­pen­sa­tion from the European Commission to cover the legal expenses they are fac­ing while com­bat­ing the tar­iffs imposed by the United States on their exports.

At the last meet­ing of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Commission, the European Commission acknowl­edged that the tar­iff quar­rel ​“is a prob­lem regard­ing not only Spain.” One of its top offi­cials noted how such tar­iffs are ​“unac­cept­able” because they were adopted ​“in vio­la­tion of the World Trade Organization reg­u­la­tions.”

The European Commission’s deputy direc­tor gen­eral for agri­cul­ture and rural devel­op­ment, John Clarke, stressed that table olive pro­duc­ers in Spain could find par­tial relief from the European Union’s rural devel­op­ment fund­ing.

He also noted that cur­rent reg­u­la­tions allow the Spanish gov­ern­ment to award up to €200 mil­lion over three years to sup­port spe­cific cases.

As reported by Euractiv, Clarke insisted that the European Union will con­tinue to work to remove such puni­tive tar­iffs. Still, he warned that legal expenses would not be refunded.

Before his remarks, table olive pro­duc­ers from Spain pre­sented a detailed list of the dam­ages caused by the U.S. tar­iffs. In their words, the tar­iffs have pro­voked a 68 per­cent cut in black olive vol­umes exported to the United States in the last five years.

According to Gabriel Cabello, pres­i­dent of the table olive depart­ment of the agri-food coop­er­a­tives of Spain, the void left in the United States’ black olive mar­ket is being filled by com­peti­tors from other European coun­tries not involved in the trade dis­pute and from North African pro­duc­ers.

Cabello noted that the United States black olive mar­ket is the most impor­tant in the world, which means that such tar­iffs directly affect the devel­op­ment of the whole sec­tor in Spain.

According to International Olive Council (IOC) fig­ures, table olives import vol­umes in the United States have grown sig­nif­i­cantly over the past few decades. In the 1990/1991 sea­son, the U.S. imported 68 thou­sand tons of table olives. Such fig­ures grew to 157.5 thou­sand tons in the 2021/2022 sea­son. Today the U.S. rep­re­sents a large share of global table olive imports.

As reported by Agroinformacion, in his speech, Cabello warned that the ​“ille­gal tar­iffs” imposed by the U.S. vio­late the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union and its sub­si­dies.

“Today, it is an action against one mem­ber state [of the European Union] only, and one sec­tor only, but it might be applied more widely to more sec­tors and more mem­ber states,” Cabello said. He noted that since the tar­iffs were imposed, more than €8.5 mil­lion has been spent in American courts by Spain’s entire table olive sec­tor.

• Euractiv
• Agroinformacion
• Olive Oil Times