`European Commission OKs Payments for Six Months of Olive Oil Storage - Olive Oil Times

European Commission OKs Payments for Six Months of Olive Oil Storage

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

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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.

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