Andalusien fordert mehr Mittel für Olivenöl- und Tafelolivenproduzenten in einer neuen Politik

Aktuelle News

Andalusian Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development Carmen Crespo has requested the national gov­ern­ment to think out­side of the box so olive oil and table olive pro­duc­ers are not ​"the next great vic­tims” of the Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik (CAP).

The regional min­is­ter made the request dur­ing the open­ing of the First Congress of Table Olive Cooperatives in Seville, the Andalusian cap­i­tal.

"We have the oppor­tu­nity in Spain to make a national strate­gic plan [for the CAP] that responds to the needs of these sec­tors,” she said. ​"The [Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food] still has the oppor­tu­nity to resolve this sit­u­a­tion by address­ing the con­cerns that Andalusia has made.”

Crespo added she hoped the aid to tra­di­tional olive grow­ers announced by Agriculture Minister Luis Planas ​"is broad enough to cover the entire Andalusian sec­tor.” She fur­ther said that now is the right time to give spe­cific aid to table olive pro­duc­ers.

Along with olive oil, ​"Andalusia is the main pro­ducer of table olives” glob­ally, Crespo added. In the -/- crop year, the autonomous com­mu­nity pro­duced - mil­lion kilo­grams of table olives, rep­re­sent­ing - per­cent of global pro­duc­tion and - per­cent of Spanish pro­duc­tion.

Her com­ments come less than a month after the Association of Young Farmers and Ranchers (Asaja) crit­i­cized the Spanish agri­cul­tural ministry’s revised finan­cial aid plan for tra­di­tional olive grow­ers. The asso­ci­a­tion said the €- mil­lion per annum ear­marked by the min­istry for tra­di­tional grow­ers is insuf­fi­cient.

Planas has insisted that Spain’s national strate­gic plan for the new CAP is an ​"excel­lent oppor­tu­nity” for the whole olive sec­tor with bet­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion of aid and addi­tional finan­cial com­mit­ments to organic and tra­di­tional olive grow­ers.

However, Crespo fer­vently dis­agreed in her speech, cit­ing regional esti­mates that antic­i­pate Andalusia to lose €- mil­lion annu­ally under the cur­rent national strate­gic plan. Of this fig­ure, the Andalusia olive sec­tor would lose €- mil­lion.

Previously, Crespo warned that - per­cent of Andalusian farm­ers and ranch­ers would lose fund­ing in the national strate­gic plan for the CAP.

"The great strength of Andalusian agri­cul­ture is that it is a united sec­tor, which goes hand in hand to face its future chal­lenges,” she said. ​"In Andalusia, we are com­mit­ted to a national strate­gic plan for the CAP that is sim­ple and fea­si­ble.”

• ABC Sevilla
• Agronews Castilla y Leon