`Greece Has No Real Strategy to Promote its Olive Oil - Olive Oil Times

Greece Has No Real Strategy to Promote its Olive Oil

By Costas Vasilopoulos
Aug. 15, 2012 11:58 UTC

During a recent debate in the Greek par­lia­ment the deputy Minister of Agriculture was chal­lenged about olive oil by a mem­ber. He replied:

Producers can and should cre­ate groups in order to have more power while nego­ti­at­ing in the mar­kets and achieve bet­ter prices for their prod­ucts. For this, stan­dard­iza­tion is of utmost impor­tance since it gives added value to the prod­uct”.

He also added: The min­istry con­sid­ers olive oil a national prod­uct of high nutri­tional value, extra qual­ity and of great eco­nomic value for the country…that’s why we sup­port it with actions.”

It is more than clear that the Greek state still has no clear and defined strat­egy about pro­mot­ing olive oil. The lan­guage of pol­i­tics does not mean any­thing here.

Standardization is some­thing that every­body knows can give the olive oil sec­tor a boost, but it is not enough. The state will need to decide on a spe­cific plan and, more impor­tantly, to imple­ment it. It will need to take action to pro­tect pro­duc­ers, take action to pun­ish fraud, take action to pro­vide incen­tives for pro­duc­ers to work together. Take actions instead of say­ing words.

In today’s tur­moil olive oil can be the loco­mo­tive to help rural ter­ri­to­ries stand on their feet again. Times of cri­sis, apart from trou­ble, can present oppor­tu­ni­ties and the chance to cor­rect many dis­crep­an­cies of the past that were rigid and stag­nant. Don’t let this oppor­tu­nity be wasted.

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