Approved Withdrawal Of 149,630 Tonnes Of Olive Oil From Spanish Operators

The Management Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets, at a meeting held in Brussels, approved the Regulation setting the maximum amount of subsidies for the private storage of olive oil in the third tender.

The subsidy is set at 0.88 euros daily per tonne for all categories of oil. Practically the entire volume approved corresponds to Spanish operators.

The limit on subsidies set means the admission of 90.5% of the amounts offered. By category, the total amount to be withdrawn practically corresponds in its entirety to lampante olive oil

The amounts in all three tenders held to date totals 170,909 tonnes, of which 95.6% corresponds to the lampante category and the rest to virgin olive oil (3.9%) and virgin extra. This means subsidies to the Spanish olive oil sector amounting to 23.9 million euros.

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food considers the result of this third tender to be a positive contribution to the recovery of prices and market stability.

He also highly valued the efforts made by Spanish operators to offer significant volumes, with amounts of subsidies applied for that allow for the withdrawal of a significant amount of the product, which will undoubtedly have a real impact on market performance in the coming weeks.

Minister Planas considers that the decision adopted will serve to recover the confidence of the Spanish operators in market management measures, which includes the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets. Accordingly, he considers the response offered by the European Commission’s services to Spanish demands to be positive, since they acted firmly when faced with the deterioration of the situation and the uncertainty generated by the imposition of customs duties by the US Administration to Spanish agricultural products, particularly olive oil.

At any event, and with the aim of finalising the necessary adjustment in the sector, there will be a fourth and final tender between 20 and 25 February 2020.