AGEA is in the process of paying out subsidies to olive growers that produced olives destined for DOP Riviera Ligure Olive Oil in the 2009-2010 season.
“Unfortunately, the subsidy paid is only € 0.30 per kg of DOP Riviera Ligure Olive Oil, one-third of the maximum of € 1.00 established by Italian law”, said Carlo Siffredi, President of the consortium for the protection of DOP Riviera Ligure Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.
It regards the application of article 68 of Regulation (EC) no. 73 of 2009, which provides specific subsidies for improving the quality of agricultural products, including protected designation of origin and organic extra-virgin olive oil.
In the 2009-2010 season, Italy produced 135 thousand quintals of protected designation of origin olive oil and 158 thousand quintals of organic olive oil, with about 4,900 applications from all of Italy, according to the initial data from AGEA (the paying agency for the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund).
Of the 135 thousand quintals with an Italian protected designation of origin, 5,800 come from Liguria, 4.3% of the Italian total.
“It would be interesting to know the quantity of DOP olive oil actually placed on the market, because our data represents the amount bottled. This would give us a precise picture of the value of DOP Ligurian production compared to that of other regions,” said Giorgio Lazzaretti, Director of the Protection Consortium.
The Riviera Ligure Protection Consortium lobbied energetically in Rome, at the Federation of DOP Oil Protection Consortia (FEDERDOP) and the HYPERLINK “http://www.aicig.it” \o “AICIG” \t “_blank” Italian Association of Geographical Indication Consortia (AICIG), to have the subsidies paid out as quickly as possible.
“We would like to thank the four Ligurian Chambers of Commerce, the certification and control organization for DOP Riviera Ligure Olive Oil – for accurately giving AGEA, the paying agency for European Community support, the olive growers’ individual production certifications. Finally, we also wish to thank the industry associations that assisted these businesses, allowing them to receive this initial subsidy for olives destined to DOP Riviera Ligure Olive Oil,” President Siffredi concluded.