Olive Growers in Jaén Protest Aid Reduction in New Budget

Hundreds of olive grow­ers joined demon­stra­tions in Jaén this week to protest a stop­gap mea­sure to fund the agri­cul­ture sec­tor until the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) comes into force in 2023.

The pre­vi­ous CAP expired at the end of 2020. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food argues that this new fund­ing will allow for a seam­less tran­si­tion into the next agree­ment.

“The deci­sion adopted today in the Council of Ministers ensures a sta­ble frame­work of pub­lic sup­port for Spanish farm­ers and ranch­ers, who will be able to receive about €7.2 bil­lion of CAP aid [per annum],” the min­istry said.

“These amounts, together with the bud­get of the future strate­gic plan of the CAP 2023 to 2027, will ensure that Spain will have the nec­es­sary bud­get through­out the 2021 to 2027 period, just over €47.7 bil­lion, to face the fun­da­men­tal chal­lenges of the agrar­ian sec­tor and rural areas,” the min­istry added.

One of the more con­tro­ver­sial points of the upcom­ing CAP is the con­ver­gence in agri­cul­tural pay­ments that will take place in Spain. The next CAP will see some regions of the coun­try lose fund­ing, while oth­ers will gain fund­ing.

Previous rounds of stop­gap fund­ing have con­tin­ued to fol­low what was pro­vided by the pre­vi­ous CAP. However, in this stop­gap mea­sure, the Spanish gov­ern­ment is begin­ning the con­ver­gence process early. Olive oil-soaked Andalusia will be one of the biggest losers under the new agree­ment.

As a result, olive farm­ers and other agri­cul­tur­al­ists flooded the streets of Jaén and other cities across the south of Spain to make their dis­con­tent known. Separate protests related to the stop­gap fund­ing were held in other regions of the coun­try, includ­ing Aragón.

Olive farm­ers and agri­cul­tural asso­ci­a­tions are angry that the inter­ven­ing agri­cul­ture bud­get decreases the amount of aid paid out per hectare. Some fear that these cuts will lay the ground­work for lower pay­ments in future CAPs.

Luis Carlos Valero, the direc­tor of the Association of Young Farmers and Rancher (Asaja) in Jaén, crit­i­cized the gov­ern­ment for rush­ing the leg­is­la­tion and pass­ing it with­out con­sult­ing farm­ers.

Asaja esti­mates that the stop­gap mea­sure could lead some pro­duc­ers to lose 25 per­cent of the fund­ing they receive from the gov­ern­ment. Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias, one of the most promi­nent agri­cul­tural asso­ci­a­tions in the coun­try, esti­mates that the new stop­gap fund­ing decreases pay­ments to farm­ers in Jaén by €150 mil­lion per annum.

“The eco­nomic sit­u­a­tion that olive grow­ers are going to expe­ri­ence will have an unques­tion­able impact on the econ­omy of the entire province of Jaén and all the towns,” Carlos Valero said.

“We are talk­ing about peo­ple who have had a tremen­dous blow from one day to the next,” added Juan Luis Ávila, the sec­re­tary gen­eral of the Coordinator of Agriculture and Livestock Organizations (COAG) Jaén. ​“An olive grower with 10 hectares of irri­gated groves lost €1,500 overnight.”

Cristóbal Cano, the sec­re­tary gen­eral of the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA) in Jaén, said that agri­cul­tural-reliant regions such as Andalusia should not endure fund­ing cuts to make up for short­falls in other parts of the coun­try.

“Jaén must have its own and spe­cific voice in all debates on the CAP due to the weight that agri­cul­ture has in our econ­omy,” he said. ​“And we are not going to allow the province… to be the one that pays the price, as has been hap­pen­ing national appli­ca­tion after national appli­ca­tion.”

However, the min­istry argues that these cuts were com­ing any­ways and by start­ing to phase them in now, olive farm­ers can bet­ter pre­pare for the future.

“This royal decree allows, dur­ing this tran­si­tion period, to give con­ti­nu­ity with total legal cer­tainty to the pay­ment of direct aid received by farm­ers and ranch­ers, as well as the mea­sures of rural devel­op­ment pro­grams,” the min­istry said. ​“The nec­es­sary adap­ta­tions are made to guar­an­tee a smooth and grad­ual tran­si­tion between one period and another.”

• Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
• Asaja Jaén
• Diario de Sevilla