4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
First results are presented in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 where it is shown the information of the
main socio-economic variables in the farms and the four analysed years. Three types of land
have been considered to study this farming taking into account production per hectare (F.
Fuentes 1999): 1) Marginal olive farm (production per hectare less than 1,200 kg.); 2) Dry olive
farm (production per hectare above 1,200 kg) and 3) Irrigate olive farm (production per hectare
superior to 2,400 kg.). We have not labour work information in the crop year 1991 what makes
it imposssible to compare this year with the other three crop year with respect to the variables of
total expenses and gross margin.
Data show a high production increase (even considering the negative effect of the deep
dry period during the year 1994, specially in irrigate olive farm). However, in 1999 and 2000
production increased significantly, in dry and irrigated lands and even in marginal olive farm.
Possibly the reason for this increase along the nineties, belongs to the farmers’ implementation
of new investments (using the subsidies to fund them in the majority of the cases) in order to get
more production per hectare and also more subsidies in the future. Most common investments
are: renewal of the all trees or the scarcely productive ones for new ones (this happens about
1990 or even at the end of 80s) which are in full production in the two last analysed years,
introduction of water in more lands and adoption of new technology in the olive tree farming.
As a consequence of everything mentioned above we can observe that production in marginal,
dry and irrigated lands goes from 624; 3,017 and 4,805 kg∕Ha in 1991 to 824; 4,152 and 5,822
kg∕Ha respectively in 2000.
It is also important to observe the great increase of subventions received in that decade.
In 1986 Spain was added to European Community and it was fixed a transitory period of 10
years for olive oil, till 1996. That meant that each of those years Spanish farmers could get 10%
of the subsidies any other European country received. This is the main reason of differences,
appart from production. On the other side, in 1998 there was a reform of the CMO olive oil
which puts a limit to the posibilities to get subventions for production of olive oil in Spain
(fixed in a National Guaranteed Quantity (NGQ) of 760.027 tons, that is, 1.005 millions euros)
as we already mentioned. In spite of that limitation spanish farmers kept on investment, so the
national olive oil production moved from a average of 650.000 tons in the period 1990-95 to
almost reach 1 million tons in the period 1998-2005. Along this period, agrarian surface
dedicated to olive tree farming increased 17% whilst production increased 70%.
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