Following the adoption, on 11 November, of the act on aid for private storage in the olive oil sector, the European Commission announced the opening, on Thursday 21 November, of the first tender (see EUROPE 12367/23).
Operators from producer Member States (Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus and Malta) will be able to submit bids to their national authorities until 26 November.
The private storage system covers extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil and lampante olive oil.
In order for the measure to be effective and have a real impact on the market, aid will be granted for olive oils in bulk and for quantities of not less than 50 tonnes. In addition, the quantities benefiting from the aid must remain in stock for at least 180 days.
This call for tenders is the first of a maximum of four. The maximum amount of aid for the storage of olive oil will be fixed for each tendering procedure, which will make it possible to set up a flexible system.
Due to oversupply after the 2018/2019 harvest, prices on the Spanish, Greek and Portuguese markets have been very low in recent months.
For example, the price of Spanish extra virgin olive oil in mid-October was 33% lower than the five-year average. Similarly, the price of Greek virgin olive oil was 13.5% lower than the five-year average.
Exceptionally high stocks at EU level, estimated at 859,000 tonnes for 2018/2019 (88% in Spain), combined with an expected average production for the 2019/2020 season, threaten to keep the EU olive oil market under pressure.
The private storage system will help to ease the pressure and rebalance the market, the Commission hopes. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)