Greek Politician Voices Concern for Sector's Vulerability

Greek Member of the European Parliament Manolis Kefalogiannis has been pos­ing a series of ques­tions to his col­leagues on the prob­lems fac­ing European olive oil pro­duc­ers over the course of his tenure. He has yet to receive much in the way of answers.

“Olive oil adul­ter­ation, dis­as­ters due to cli­mate change and pres­sure on pro­duc­ers, espe­cially in Greece, by inter­me­di­aries in the olive oil trade chain, cre­ates much uncer­tainty about their income,” Kefalogiannis declared in his recent inquiry to the Parliament. ​“How and which financ­ing instru­ments will the Commission use to sup­port the export of those prod­ucts, both within the EU and to third coun­tries?”

“The pur­pose of the ques­tion was to high­light the impor­tance of the olive oil sec­tor, for the south­ern European coun­tries and espe­cially Greece,” Manolis Kefalogiannis told Olive Oil Times. ​“The only way to pro­tect the pro­duc­ers — from the pro­duc­tion chain to the sale — is by empow­er­ing their posi­tion against monop­oly prac­tices that com­press their prof­its.”

Kefalogiannis wants European Commission to focus on ways that will pro­vide a safety net to pro­duc­ers when the har­vest sea­son is not pro­duc­tive due to extreme weather con­di­tions or other dis­as­ters.

“Italy is a global leader in olive oil sales, as they have man­aged to asso­ciate olive oil with their gas­tron­omy,” Kefalogiannis said. ​“This model is so suc­cess­ful that they import olive oil from other European coun­tries like Spain and Greece to cover their huge demand. Drought and the Xylella fas­tidiosa bac­te­ria caused sig­nif­i­cant pro­duc­tion decrease to Italy and forced Europe to open the mar­ket for tax-free imports from non-EU coun­tries, like Tunisia.”

Kefalogiannis said he presents sim­i­lar olive oil-related ques­tions every year, in the con­text of par­lia­men­tary busi­ness. ​“We have to ensure that such prac­tices will not dis­tort the mar­ket against our pro­duc­ers. We could do tax-free imports, only when our reserves run out while enforc­ing rig­or­ous con­trol in the olive oil trade mar­ket.”

European Commission’s sta­tis­tics show that 70 per­cent of Greek olive oil pro­duced annu­ally is being exported to Italy. This is the high­est per­cent­age of all olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­tries and a big prob­lem for the olive oil sec­tor in Greece as the depen­dency on the Italian mar­ket is immense.

“If our neigh­bors turn off the olive oil faucet one day, this will cause huge vol­umes of unsold olive oil that will have an obvi­ous impact on prices,” Kefalogiannis argued. ​“This fear is real­is­tic. The Greek olive oil qual­ity may be con­sid­ered high, but other olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­tries invested in the sec­tor and now pro­duce great olive oil, like Tunisia.”

“Greek Olive Oil pro­duc­ers should exploit the advan­tages of the free access in the European mar­ket,” Kefalogiannis advised. ​“The Greeks should diver­sify the dis­tri­b­u­tion and sales chan­nels. More, they should attend inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions and fol­low the Agriculture Commissioner, who invites European com­pa­nies of the pri­mary sec­tors dur­ing his busi­ness trips around the world.”

“Finally,” Kefalogiannis noted, ​“the Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development should update and moti­vate the olive oil com­pa­nies to par­tic­i­pate in these activ­i­ties.”

• European Parliament


• Manolis Kefalogiannis, Greek Member of the European Parliament