The effects of the Health Check of the Common Agricultural Policy on Italian olive tree farming

The decoupling process of the CAP's direct payments is affecting the Italian olive oil sector's structure and competitiveness. The shift of the single payment scheme from the historical to the regional model, as recommended in the Health Check final agreement, might further affect this sector and threat the existence of the olive-growing farms mainly in less productive areas. This work aims to analyse the potential effects of the latest CAP reform on olive growers' behaviour and economic performance in southern Italy. The object area is the Apulia region, which is one of the most important olive-growing regions in Italy. To analyze the economic impact of the reform, we adopt a simulation scheme of the farm economic balance based on the definition and characterization of Representative Olive-growing Farms (ROFs). The analysis demonstrates that the regionalization of the entitlements would imply an income reduction for all farms, which is stronger in the «complete approximation» scenario, and for those farms located in marginal areas.