OLIVE TREE FARMING IN JAEN: SITUATION WITH THE NEW CAP
AND COMPARISON WITH THE PROVINCE INCOME PER CAPITA.
1. INTRODUCTION
Jaén (province belonging to European Union) represents more than 15% of the Spanish
production of olive oil, around 7% of European Union olive oil and more than 5% of the world
production. Olive oil represents more than 90% of the income in Jaen agricultural sector and
agricultural sector contributes with 15% of GDP province in 2003.
CAP reform has contributed to modify farmers’ behaviour in Andalusia and, specially,
farmers in Jaen along the nineties and the first years of the new century. However, olive tree
farming was the less affected type of farming by the 1992 reform. Even the same CMO reform
kept the system of delivering aids considering the crop as it was conceived in the origin of
CMO. It introduced important limits to get subsidies for produced oil. Intermediate reform has
sustantially modified the farms status quo. On the contrary, CAP intermediate reform has
sustantially modified the farming status quo. Farming aid decopling and the establishment of a
right for a single payment according to the average received subsidies in the reference crop
years will provoke important changes in the structure of many olive oil farms.
2. Objetives
The aims seek in this research are the following:
Our first aim is to know the evolution of the olive oil farms in the province of Jaén in the
nineties through data obtained by four surveys.
Secondly, we will introduce in the data analysis the impact of the new CAP reform done
in 2003. Then, we will measure the effects that the new single payment system could have on
the margin of agrarian farms.
And finally, we will compare these farms income with the average per capita income in
the province of Jaén.
With these objectives we would like to show the differences between different types of
farms, the different evolution they have had during those years and take under consideration the
fact that many olive tree farms bring owners in an extra income but they are never the main
income for the families.