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COPA-COGECA URGES EU COMMISISON TO OPEN PRIVATE STORAGE FORT OLIVE OIL, WARNING OF CRISIS SITUATION

Date

29 Mar 2010

Sections

Health & Consumers
Agriculture & Food

Copa-Cogeca called on the EU Commission today to urgently open private storage for olive oil,
warning that the sector is in crisis.

In a letter sent to the EU Commission today, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen
argued “For two consecutive years, producers are selling their product below production costs,
even though production matches demand. For example, production costs in Spain, a major
producer, reached 2.4 euros/kg whilst prices were between 1.80 and 2 euros/kg, according to
figures from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture. Similar situations can be found in the other
main EU producer countries, such as Italy”

Benedetto Orlandi, Chairman of the Copa-Cogeca Working Party on Olive Oil and Table Olives,
stressed “The situation is catastrophic. Producer prices fell by as much as 15.2% in 2009,
compared to the previous year. Private storage must be activated immediately, to avoid a price
crash”.

Experience has shown that the opening of private storage can boost market prices immediately
and improve farm profitability. Copa-Cogecas’ working group on olive oil is meanwhile
reflecting on a number of measures to address the serious problem of disequilibrium in the food
chain which has caused the low prices. Without action, more farmers will go out of business and
there will be a further exodus of farmers from the rural areas of the EU.

For further information, please contact:

Eva Corral

Senior Policy Adviser

Tel.: +32 2 287 27 70

Eva.Corral@copa-cogeca.eu

Amanda Cheesley

Press Officer

Mobile: + 32 474 840 836

amanda.cheesley@copa-cogeca.eu