US changes Spanish olives for those from Morocco, Egypt and Turkey
In the first quarter of this year, the export of black table olives from Spain to the US has fallen by 42.4% compared to the same period of 2017. Facing this decline, exports from the rest of the countries grew by 16.3%.
During the first three months of 2018, Spain exported 4 million kilos of table olives to the US, which means a decrease of 42.4% in relation to the same period of the previous year, when 6 million kilos were exported.
The sectoral organization Asemesa has indicated that this is “especially worrisome”, since the tariff of 17.13% did not begin to apply until January 28, 2018, and, in addition, in the first quarter of the year, many annual contracts, with expiration date in the months following that application, were still in force. For these reasons, Asemesa foresees an even greater fall in the coming months.
On the other hand, exports of table olives to the US from the rest of countries grew 16.3%, from 7 million kilos to 8.2 million, highlighting the growth of countries such as Morocco (3 million kilos; +33%), Egypt (1.2 million kilos; +50%) and Turkey (400,000 kilos; +82.3%).
Spain is the leading producer of table olives in the world, followed by Egypt and Turkey.
The US Government decided to apply a tariff to Spanish olives because of supposed unfair commercial practices by Spanish companies related to the EU subsidies.
Source: libremercado.com