The European Commission has “expressed interest” in working with olive oil cooperatives in order to help stabilize prices in Spain, according to an announcement from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Esperanza Orellana, the Ministry’s general director of production and agricultural markets, told a gathering of olive oil and table olive industry members that the Ministry had brought up the subject at a recent meeting in Brussels.
“She noted the interest of the Commission to collaborate with the Spanish cooperatives and the Ministry in the development of a mechanism, absolutely novel, that will avoid the serious imbalances in the oil market that have taken place this year,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Olive oil prices in Spain remain well below what many producers and their advocates say is necessary to keep producers in business.
Orellana said that the Ministry and European Commission are already looking at self-regulation measures, which were proposed by Spain’s Interprofessional Olive Oil Organization, and would see how they could be applied in accordance with current European Law.
There was no mention from the Ministry what the new mechanisms would entail or how they would operate.
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