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<pre>There are no levies in Italy. The system is unique to Australia (I
think) and an excellent one in principle. The producers of the product pay
for the research or part of it (there is usually some government matching
funds). It does however buck the world trend of equitible payment in the
public interest. The trend is toward private research funded by patents.
Australian farmers and growers are now finding that they are paying twice.
There are levies for public research which should go freely into the public
domain and then they pay again through the royalties on seeds and plants
that have been patented. Part of the joys of globalisation I suppose!

For olive growers it is a difficult choice.

The other aspect of levy funds is who controls them. In most case it is
the larger farmers. They have the time to attend meetings and get themselve
elected onto the relevant committees. They intentionally or unintentionally
bias the research toward the problems of the big growers.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
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