91998E0054

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0054/98 by Nikitas Kaklamanis (UPE) to the Commission (29 January 1998)

Subject: Dramatic reduction in Community olive oil subsidies

Olive oil producers in Greece are in a very difficult economic position, following the decision to cut the Community support price from Drachma 457 a kilo to Drachma 301 a kilo.

This decision has driven producers to despair, since they will lose a total of some Drachma 180 billion in 1998, a loss which comes at a time when they are suffering an unprecedented fall in income, owing to the repeated austerity programmes implemented by Greek governments over the last few years. Their objective inability to replace olive oil production with some other product makes the situation even more complicated, and they increasingly feel that they are producing a product which does not enjoy the substantive support of the EU.

Will the Commission say precisely what measures it intends to take to support long-suffering Greek olive oil producers whose future will obviously be in jeopardy if the decision to cut the Community support price for olive oil is implemented?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission (26 February 1998)

The common organisation of the market in olive oil lays down a system of production aid for olive oil, as follows:

- producers who exceed an average 500 kilograms of olive oil per marketing year are granted aid of ECU 142.20 per 100 kilograms, subject to reduction if there is an overrun of the maximum guaranteed quantity (MGQ), which is 1 350 000 tonnes;

- producers with average annual production under 500 kilograms are granted aid of ECU 151.48 per 100 kilograms and supplementary aid of ECU 3.574 per 100 kilograms. Small producers are not penalised by an overrun of the MGQ.

Clawbacks on are made on both types of production aid and allocated to work on establishing the olive cultivation register (2.4%), improving the quality of olive oil (1.4%) and running recognised producer organisations and associations of them (0.8%).

The cut in production aid to which the Honourable Member refers involves aid received by large-scale producers for output in the 1996/97 marketing year. According to the information in the Commission's possession, such producers represent around 25% of all olive growers in Greece.

Finally, we should not forget that this aid makes up only part of olive growers' incomes, since they are in fact paid for the olive oil that they sell.