NEW OLIVE AGREEMENT COMES UP FOR ADOPTION

NEW OLIVE AGREEMENT COMES UP FOR ADOPTION

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 22 April (UNCTAD) -- Member States of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will meet for five days beginning Monday to consider adoption of a new International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives.

The draft agreement, whose text was negotiated last year by members of the International Olive Oil Council -- largely Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries, along with the European Community, which account for the bulk of the world’s olive production -- is intended to be the latest in a series of such pacts dating back to 1956.  The previous agreement was adopted in 1986, amended in 1993, and has since been extended for successive two-year periods.  It is now scheduled to expire at the end of 2005.

The successor agreement, if approved, will incorporate some changes in general objectives.  New clauses will call, among other things, for promoting activities leading to “harmonious, sustainable” expansion of the world olive products economy; for the study and application of measures to balance production and consumption; for encouraging research and development and the transfer of technology; for laying foundations for cooperation in international trade; and for improving interaction between olive growing and the environment.

World production of olive oil during the 2004-2005 crop year came to some 2.8 million tons.  Countries of the European Community account annually for almost 78 per cent of the global total.  Leading European Community producers are Spain (43 per cent of the European total), Italy (35 per cent), and Greece (19 per cent).  Other major suppliers of olive oil are Syria, Turkey and Tunisia.

According to the International Olive Oil Council, within the global market for olive oil “an overall balance was observed between supply and demand during the four-season reference period from 1999/2000 to 2002/03.”  The Council cites, among current concerns, the rising exchange rate of the euro against the US dollar and its possible negative effect on international olive-oil trade.

Membership in the International Olive Oil Council is open to producing and importing countries, and to intergovernmental organizations such as the European Community.  Membership historically has consisted mostly of producers.  Current members are Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, European Community, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Monaco, Morocco, Serbia and Montenegro, SyrianArabRepublic, and Tunisia.  Funding of the organization is through contributions according to a formula based on each member’s proportion of production and exports of olive products.

The Conference, formally called the United Nations Conference for the Negotiation of a Successor Agreement to the International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives, 1986, as Amended and Extended, 1993, will convene at 10 a.m. on Monday, 25 April, and run through Friday, 29 April.  The provisional agenda and annotations are contained in document TD/OLIVE OIL10.1, and the provisional rules of procedure are contained in document TD/OLIVE OIL10.2.  The conference will have before it document TD/OLIVE OIL10.3, containing the draft new agreement, as approved by the International Olive Oil Council in its decision No. DEC 7/90-IV/2004 of 8 October 2004.

The current Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives is among a series of international commodity agreements presided over by the UNCTAD and negotiated at conferences under UNCTAD’s auspices, with the office of the United Nations Secretary-General serving as depositary.  Other agreements concern cocoa, coffee, cotton, grains, sugar, and tropical timber.  All agreements are administrative in nature and focus on such matters as providing fora for producer-consumer consultations; enhancing market transparency; devising development projects (mainly using resources from the Common Fund for Commodities); and compiling statistics.  As with the International Olive Oil Council, international commodity organizations have been established in each case to administer the agreements.

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