The Minister of Agriculture, Miguel Barrachina, demands that the Ministry of Agriculture exclude the Comunitat Valenciana from the obligation to withdraw 12% of olive oil. According to the regional government, Valencian producers represent 1.4% of national production.
The Valencian government is asking the Ministry of Agriculture to review the mandatory storage of olive oil and to leave out the Comunitat Valenciana. This request was made by the Minister of Agriculture, Miguel Barrachina, during the inauguration of the V Citrus Conference of Asaja-Alicante. According to Las Provincias, the regional official argued that decisions affecting agriculture should take into account the particularities of each territory.
Barrachina maintains that Valencian production barely weighs in the national total, with a 1.4% share. He also recalls that in numerous regions, the harvest has decreased rather than increased, so applying the rule generally does not fit the reality of the sector in the Comunitat.
“The obligation to withdraw 12% of the oil has a negative impact”
The minister adds that the Valencian sector relies on small cooperatives and local mills, where a significant portion of the oil is destined for the self-consumption of the members. Many of these facilities, he explains, do not have space to store the oil that the measure requires to immobilise, which will force them to hire storage and logistics.
“This obligation will incur new costs for storage, logistics, and rental of deposits that will ultimately be borne by the farmers”
Barrachina also criticises that the withdrawal applies only to the production of Spanish mills and not to oil imported from third countries. In his opinion, it makes no sense to halt local production while foreign oil enters without those restrictions.
At the same event, the minister referred to the Tajo-Segura transfer, which has been halted since mid-September due to two breaks. According to his figures, the closure has retained 65 cubic hectometres of water for irrigation that has already been authorised, of which about 20 correspond to the province of Alicante, and another 20 pending for the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla.
Barrachina estimates that each cubic hectometre allocated for irrigation generates four million euros in wealth, with 86 jobs associated. He adds that in the Vega Baja there are 25,000 hectares that depend on that water, and that six out of ten litres of irrigation in the Vega Baja and the Riegos de Levante come through the transfer.
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