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<pre>--- In OliveOil@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Chatterton"
<blchatterton@t...> wrote:
>
>
> There are no levies in Italy. The system is unique to Australia
(I
> think) and an excellent one in principle.


The proposed levy has two parts, one (compulsory) for R&D and
the other (not compulsory) for AOA funds. Both are required to be
collected by the processor. In each instance the AOA advise on
the direction of spending of those funds.

As has already been demonstrated, the AOA represent the olive
industry and the Barkworth Managed Investment Scheme leads
the Australian olive industry.

The Government has already spent funds on R&D, in 1997 they
gave Agrolive $500,000 to research the growing of Barnea in
Australia. At that time Agrolive stated it was the aim of "their
consortium" to produce more than 10 million litres per year. In
2003 the Australian harvest was some 1,300 tonnes (approx 1.4
million litres)



>
> 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.
</pre>
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