A meeting took place this morning in Rome between the president of AIFO (Italian Association of Olive Oil Mills), Elia Pellegrino, and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Patrizio La Pietra. At the centre of the comparison, the critical issues emerged in the implementation of the PNRR measure for the modernization of oil mills, financed with 100 million euros.
AIFO has raised the issue of the blocking of advances: to date, according to what was reported by the association, no Region has yet proceeded with the payment of the advances foreseen by the call for tenders, despite the beneficiaries having already deposited the required guarantees. A situation that is generating a chain reaction of paralysis, hindering the delivery and installation of the machinery.
“The lack of advance payments prevents companies from honoring contracts with suppliers – explained Pellegrino – and without deliveries it is not possible to respect the timetable foreseen by the decree, which imposes the conclusion of the investments by 31 January 2026".
But for a miller the useful time runs out much earlier: “The olive oil campaign begins in October – clarified the president of AIFO – and by the end of September the modernization works must be completed, otherwise production will be blocked. It is unacceptable that the millers find themselves caught between the anvil of undelivered machines and the hammer of unpostponable deadlines”.
Precisely for this reason, AIFO also asked for a change to the timetable, proposing to move the January 31 deadline to at least March 31, 2026.. An extension that would allow the installations to be completed if the delivery of the machinery were to take place in the middle of the olive oil campaign or immediately after. Also in this perspective, the possible arrival of additional resources from MASAF would make it possible to guarantee more relaxed technical times for the production, installation and testing of the systems.
Il Undersecretary La Pietra expressed maximum willingness to address the issue, committing to urge the Regions to verify the status of the disbursements and identify any operational criticalities. He also announced that MASAF is working to allocate additional PNRR resources to the measure, so as to allow one scrolling of the rankings and also finance the projects currently excluded.
During the meeting, the national olive table was also discussed. The Undersecretary anticipated that in the next few hours an official communication will be sent to all members for the designation of representatives in the five working groups responsible for developing the National Olive Plan.
