The counselor of Agriculture, Fishing, Water, and Rural Development in office, Ramón Fernández-Pachecho, has sent this Wednesday a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing, and Food in which he requests that the European Commission be asked to suspend the active improvement regime applied to olive oil. The objective is to adopt measures that prevent the current distortion of the market for this key product for Andalusia.
This active improvement regime is a special customs procedure that allows goods from third countries to be used within the customs territory of the European Union without paying duties or taxes while undergoing one or several transformation operations. Subsequently, these goods can be re-exported or released for free circulation within the EU, at which point the corresponding duties and taxes are applied, as the Junta has recalled in an informative note.
From the Ministry of Agriculture, however, it is considered that "extra virgin olive oil is not subjected to any transformation operation, but to basic and simple interventions that do not alter the nature or technical performance of the original product." For this reason, "the Andalusian administration requests to know if extra virgin olive oil can be covered by the aforementioned import regime, and if so, to be informed of what transformation is carried out on this category of oil."
In the same vein, the Junta demands that the Ministry clarify the result of the evaluation of the requests for Active Improvement Traffic (TPA) related to olive oil processed in Spain during the last five years. Furthermore, as detailed in the letter, "in addition to reviewing this active improvement regime for the case of olive oil because it is considered that this product is not subjected to any transformation, another of the major concerns is the notable increase in imports of olive oil from Tunisia in recent years, specifically in the case of extra virgin olive oil (AOVE)."
By virtue of the trade agreement between the European Union and Tunisia, there is a quota of 57,700 tons of Tunisian olive oil exempt from tariffs. However, through the use of the TPA, approximately double that volume would be entering. In light of this situation, the counselor emphasizes that "a distortion is occurring in the olive oil market and the Andalusian Government requests that all available legal tools be used, such as the possibility of suspending the active improvement regime when the Union market suffers disturbances."
Fernández-Pachecho recalls that there are already precedents: in the case of raw cane sugar, the European Commission decided to suspend the active improvement regime due to the strong increase in imports in recent campaigns. According to data handled by the Ministry of Agriculture, similar circumstances are occurring in olive oil, with entries under the TPA regime in 2024 and 2025 far exceeding those recorded between 2021 and 2023, a dynamic that extends into 2026.
Specifically, the percentage of olive oil imports from Tunisia that are subject to active improvement reaches 61.6% in 2025 and, in the period from January to April 2026, this proportion skyrockets to 76.3%. Additionally, the weight of AOVE within the imports covered by the TPA has grown significantly in recent years, representing 75% in the first months of 2026.
At the same time, the national olive oil market is going through a delicate situation, with low prices that have continued to decline in August, especially in the AOVE segment. This deterioration in prices contrasts with the strong increase in production costs in recent years, as highlighted by recent studies such as the one published in July by the Spanish Association of Olive Municipalities (AEMO).
For all these reasons, the counselor insists on "the need for the Ministry of Agriculture to demand that the European Union activate this exceptional mechanism to avoid disturbances in the olive oil market, as we have sufficient reasons to believe that our producers do not compete on equal terms and there is a widespread decline in local prices despite the increase in production costs due to various factors."