Brussels, 19/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 18 June Dacian Ciolos, the European commissioner for agriculture, provided an explanation regarding the action plan for providing a “new boost” to the olive oil sector, which has been suffering from structural problems (see EUROPE 10636).
During a press conference following the Agriculture Council in Luxembourg on Tuesday, the commissioner pointed out that “there are difficulties on the market at a sales level but there is good consumer potential in Europe and elsewhere”. The action plan proposes to: - enhance inspections and penalties against fraud (mixes of different categories of oil); - speed up at the international olive oil council stricter quality guidelines (new techniques help to detect odourless oils that are illegally described as virgin oil); - improve labelling so that consumers are better informed and quality oils better highlighted.
Ciolos proposed that ministers from producer countries (Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus) think about a new classification of olive oil, “that more clearly illustrates the specificities of quality olive oils”. In short, there is virgin olive oil and olive oil (a category that very broadly also includes mixtures of olive-based oil and residue olive oil).
The Commission also proposes ideas regarding sector restructuring. Future rural development programmes could be used by countries to help restructure the olive oil sector. There is also the question of subsidiary restructuring measures and encouraging the concentration of supply at a level of producers and processors “to improve bargaining power with major distribution companies”. In this context there is also the possibility of using rural development programmes for encouraging producer organisations to combine (with collective investment facilities) and provide inter-professional organisations with a greater role in controlling quality (bottling and marketing).
The Commission also intends to take promotion measures (with the possibility of using national origin for certain olive oils). Finally, the Commission is also thinking about improvements to certain market management measures, such as predicting private storage resources managed by inter-professional organisations for oils of bad or low quality, such as lamp and residue olive oil. In situations of market pressure, these oils could be put into private storage by professional organisations. Bad quality products could also be withdrawn from the market and directed towards other destinations. The possibility of proceeding to collective bargaining on prices between co-operatives, producer organisations and purchasers should also be examined “in respect of competition rules”, explained Ciolos.
The commissioner considers that these ideas had been well received by the representatives from the eight producer countries. These countries will have to make their suggestions for improving the action plan and the Commission is hoping to have a final version of the document by July, before moving on to the action plan implementation stage. (LC/transl.fl)