`Turkey Opposes Extending Barjol's Contract - Olive Oil Times
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Turkey Opposes Extending Barjol's Contract

By Olive Oil Times Staff
Nov. 13, 2014 11:24 UTC
İsmail Kalender, head of the Turkish del­e­ga­tion to the International Olive Council

Turkey has objected to a pro­posal to extend the con­tract of the International Olive Council (IOC) exec­u­tive direc­tor, Jean-Louis Barjol and other senior offi­cials, on the grounds that it would ​“dis­re­gard the Council’s insti­tu­tional expe­ri­ence of over­com­ing prob­lems.“

In a let­ter to the European Commission, İsmail Kalender, gen­eral man­ager of coop­er­a­tive affairs for the Customs and Trade Ministry and head of the Turkish del­e­ga­tion to the IOC, wrote, ​“I am of the opin­ion that insti­tu­tional struc­ture takes prece­dence of indi­vid­u­als and per­sonal point of views.”

An under­sec­re­tary of the Turkish trade min­istry, Neşet AKKOÇ, is the cur­rent IOC chair.

The treaty gov­ern­ing the IOC runs out next month and con­fi­den­tial nego­ti­a­tions are under­way to draft a new char­ter. The European Commission is nego­ti­at­ing the new treaty on behalf of the EU, which is an IOC mem­ber.

The Commission asked the IOC Council of Members for a 12-month exten­sion of the 2005 agree­ment because ​“progress is such that it is now cer­tain that the dead­line of 31 December 2014 for the con­clu­sion of an agree­ment can­not be met.” The IOC Council of Members can pro­long the agree­ment for up to two, 24-month peri­ods.

Jean-Louis Barjol

In his let­ter, Kalender objects to the ​“inter­link­ing” of extend­ing the treaty with the exten­sion of the tenure of senior offi­cials, includ­ing the exec­u­tive direc­tor.

Kalender also said Barjol ​“usurped the pow­ers of the Council,” and made an ​“ille­gal trans­ac­tion” con­trary to three deci­sions by the IOC and its com­mit­tees on staffing pro­ce­dures cited in the let­ter. ​“The essen­tial issue for ensur­ing the con­tin­u­ance of the cor­po­rate struc­ture in a sta­ble man­ner is trust and hon­esty,” Kalender wrote.

Barjol’s four years at the IOC has been a period of major chal­lenges in the sec­tor. His early cam­paign pledge to engage the United States, even wel­come it as an IOC mem­ber, was never to mate­ri­al­ize. On the con­trary, efforts by bur­geon­ing American pro­duc­ers, and their like-minded mates in Australia, have had the intended effect of mar­gin­al­iz­ing the inter­gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion at every turn.

Despite a steady stream of sci­ence sup­port­ing the unri­valed health ben­e­fits of olive oil con­sump­tion and the emerg­ing wealth in huge mar­kets like Russia, India and China, global olive oil con­sump­tion is lower now than when Barjol took office, fail­ing even to show a gain with pop­u­la­tion growth over the term.

The low point in the Barjol admin­is­tra­tion might have been early 2013, when the orga­ni­za­tion’s bud­get impasse required it to oper­ate in a state of limbo that pre­vented Barjol’s travel to rep­re­sent the sec­tor at a key Codex meet­ing.

High-pro­file exposés such as Tom Mueller’s Extra Virginity, a crit­i­cal report by the University of California at Davis and a New York Times info­graphic have pro­ceeded to slam the rep­u­ta­tion of olive oil in gen­eral and con­found con­sumers, while well-funded cam­paigns by seed oil pro­duc­ers gladly took advan­tage of indus­try infight­ing.

In an indi­ca­tion of how lit­tle good news there has been dur­ing his tenure, Barjol launched an effort in late 2012 to fos­ter ​“pos­i­tive writ­ing by jour­nal­ists about the olive indus­try,” by offer­ing €5,000 for the best arti­cle ​“pro­mot­ing the desire to dis­cover and enjoy olive oil and table olives” — only to can­cel the con­test after the dead­line due to the lack of entries.

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