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Food industry cooperatives in Spain's Castilla-La Mancha region have announced plans to file a formal request next week to the regional government's Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development Counselor, Julián Martínez Lizán, seeking the suspension of the 'Active Processing Trade' mechanism, which permits duty-free imports of Tunisian olive oil for subsequent re-export.
In a letter addressed to the regional government, Gregorio Gómez, the sectoral spokesperson for the olive oil division within the cooperatives, revealed that the organization will push for the file to be forwarded to Spain's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in order to initiate the legal procedures required to suspend the mechanism. The request is grounded in Article 195 of EU Regulation No. 1308 of 2013, which empowers the European Commission to suspend the duty-free import regime, either fully or partially, on its own initiative or in response to a formal request from a member state.
The cooperatives stress that the mechanism was originally conceived as an exceptional measure to cover temporary shortages of raw materials, not as a permanent import channel. In their assessment, its current use has effectively turned Tunisian olive oil into a substitute for Spanish oil in international markets.
The organization links this development directly to the customs duties imposed by the United States on olive oil imports from the European Union. According to the cooperatives, certain exporters have been purchasing large volumes of Tunisian olive oil under the mechanism, then packaging or processing it before re-exporting it, particularly to the US market, in an effort to circumvent the tariffs levied on European olive oil.
The cooperatives bolster their case with domestic market data, noting that extra virgin olive oil prices during the current season are approximately 25% lower than the average recorded over the past two years, according to widely tracked price observatories. They also point to a significant decline in trading volumes on the benchmark olive oil pricing platforms in Spain and Italy, at a time when stronger activity had been expected, particularly in light of forecast production declines for the 2025-2026 season.
Castilla-La Mancha ranks as Spain's second-largest olive oil producing region, making the protection of local producers from the repercussions of these imports a sector priority. The cooperatives intend to urge the regional Ministry of Agriculture to submit a formal request to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, with the aim of suspending the Active Processing mechanism and establishing a clear Spanish position on the future of these imports.
Source: tunisie-telegraph.com