In a year in which olive oil production is expected to reach around 180,000 tonnes, the highest figure since records began, FENAZEITES has learned that the entire olive sector in Alentejo is at a standstill, from olive harvesting to the mills that process them.
Due to this year’s production boom, the three large olive pomace reception units, from mills, cooperatives and non-cooperatives, which process all the olives produced in Alentejo, have exhausted or are close to exhausting their storage capacity and are no longer accepting raw materials.
This whole situation is causing incalculable damage to farmers and companies linked to the sector, and it will be terrifying to see what could happen to the olive oil value chain, as there is nowhere to put the olive pomace, whose estimated production is expected to reach 900,000,000 kg.
Warnings from the sector were disregarded
The cooperative sector, through FENAZEITES and its associate UCASUL – Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, has been trying for several years to raise awareness among the responsible entities about the possibility of this situation occurring.
Despite this, extraction units were not authorised to increase their capacity, nor were they licensed to open new units. The negative image of bagasse treatment units in recent years, whether through groups of people or associations that have somehow identified the fragility of the social impact, has been part of the sector’s political agenda and has done nothing to help implement the solutions needed to ensure balance and the much-desired sustainability of the sector.
At the same time, PDR2020 no longer includes the olive sector from 2018 to November 2021, and the transfer of funds from the second pillar to the first pillar demonstrates the administration’s lack of concern about the urgency of investments in the processing and production of olive pomace.
The absence and refusal to accept a balanced global strategy for the sector by the competent bodies has caused these structural imbalances, which are already penalising the entire national sector, particularly in Alentejo, where the bottleneck in the reception of olive pomace is leading to the collapse of related activities.
