COAG Demands a “strategic stock” of olive oil to guarantee just prices

The Coordinator of Organisations of Agriculturalists and Graziers (COAG) has requested to the Minister of Agriculture, Miguel Arias Cañete, that promote in the breast of the EU the set up of a strategic stock for the olive oil that endow of some stability to the market and prevent undesirable situations for producers and consumers, avoiding that the brusque swings in the prices hamper the profitability of the exploitations or affect to the consumption. “It has showed that the system of private storage is ineffective whereas they do not update the prices of activation. Thus it has to be accompanied of a strategic storage, more agile and effective, that can compensate the most reduced harvests, avoiding problems of desabastecimiento and teeth of saw in the prices”, has puntualizado Gregorio López, manager of the sector of the olivar of COAG.

According to the data of the Agency for the Oil of Oliva, the production of oil until 31 December has situated in the 383.000 tonnes, less than the half of the obtained the past campaign and 31% inferior to the average of the four last harvests in the same date. To this data it is necessary to add that the recolección finds finalised in the greater part of the zones of production, that the performances grasos are inferior to the usual and that during the month of January the tonnes obtained will not surpass the half of the produced in the month of December. That is to say, during this campaign hardly will arrive to the 550.000 tonnes, the lowest figure from 1994-1995. With a so short harvest will result complex to attend to the demand that has generated in the last years.

This situation has led to that, after four seasons with the prices at origin (1.80/kg) below the costs of production (2.40/kg), since last July has been observed an upward trend. According to the Poolred system, the various categories of olive oil prices have increased in more than one euro per kilo being, in the case of the extra virgin, in the surroundings of the 3/kg. "The market will put the price where to put it, but the activists not to obtain profitability for our farms since the harvest has been ruined and the very similar fixed costs", said Lopez. For this reason that since COAG come suing the various fiscal and financial measures authorities that serve to relieve the economic plight that the growers: postponement of the repayment of the loans for modernization and installation of young farmers of the latest campaigns, enforcement of a zero module, the exemption of the payment of contributions for Social Security in the year 2013 or exemption from the IBI.

Finally, COAG exhorts to the administrations to keep the level of exigencia and increase the controls in matter of quality, especially in these campaigns of scarce harvest and high imports, to ensure that it puts to disposal of the consumers a product of quality and corresponding with the characteristics indicated in the containers.