Born with the best premises, the tender it allocates risks creating general discontent 30 million euros for the modernization of olive groves or their new planting. Only from Sicilia for the news comes that they have been over 1.500 questions presented by registered olive growers 9 OPs present in the region, practically more than those that will be eligible for financing throughout Italy (that is to say 1.200 to which to assign the 25 euro maximum contribution for a total of 30 million).
He is the spokesperson for it Mario Terrasi (in the picture), president of the OP Oleum Sicilia which alone represents 45% of the olive producers adhering to OPs recognized in the region. “Our OP – she confided to us – has already signed up 400 new members who have applied for new facilities. To these are added just as many who have asked for the contribution for the renewal of their olive groves. Given the due proportions, we will exceed 1.500 applications in Sicily”.
A number that Terrasi reads in two ways: “On the one hand it is certainly positive, because it means that olive growing is a rapidly growing sector in our region, agricultural enterprises believe in it and there is a will to plant. On the other hand, we are well aware that only some applications will be accepted and this worries us because it mortifies the desire of olive growers to invest in this sector. And fortunately, then, that as a Region we have obtained a higher score in the national rankings for disadvantaged areas which, here in Sicily, affect all inland areas. This will allow us to obtain something more, otherwise, on the basis of the first formulation of the criteria for the rankings, no more than 100 applications would have been accepted".
In any case, the proposal is renewed: "Taking into account that the applications from all over Italy will eventually be 10 times higher than the 1.200 that can be financed with the 25 euro ceiling, we have asked, like Unaprol and Coldiretti, to keep open the rankings and to find other resources to finance the tender, so as to allow a greater number of olive growers to see their expectations met".
