Situation of European SMEs in the olive oil and table olive area . Survey

En este trabajo, se realiza un estudio de la PYME europea en el sector olivarero para detectar las principales necesidades que tienen las empresas en información técnica, participación en proyectos de investigación, formación, Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (TIC), calidad, impacto ambiental, etc. Los datos se obtuvieron a través de encuestas enviadas a empresas de Alemania, Francia, España, Grecia, Italia, Portugal y Turquía. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que las TIC tienen un nivel razonable de implantación en este sector industrial. Así mismo, las empresas encuestadas manifiestan tener gran interés en actividades de formación e información en la legislación relacionada con el sector, el control de calidad y el marketing.


INTRODUCTION
The production of olive oil has a very high economic and social value in the Mediterranean countries and the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet, based mainly on the consumption of olive oil as source of fats, has led to a great interest in the European Union both to improve the competitiveness of the olive oil producers and the knowledge by the potential consumers on the healthy results obtained when changing other edible fats by olive oil 1,2,3,4,5,6 .
Spain, Italy and Greece are the major producing countries of olive oil and table olives. Most of the enterprises in this sector in those countries are small, only 0.6% of them have more than 200 employees, and suffer from a lack of technological development.
Olive oil world trade represents hardly 3% of the total of edible fats. The main competitor to olive oil is seed oil that can partially substitute olive oil in consumption and is much cheaper.
In order to have an overview of the current situation, a survey has been carried out to analyse the situation of the SMEs in the olive oil and table olive sector, from several points of view, and to determine their needs in: training, information, R&D, introduction of ICTs, quality, marketing, etc.
Next a short overview of the general situation of the olive oil industrial sector in the countries where the study has been developed is given: • The olive oil sector in Spain (Average annual production 808,014 tons for the years 1991-2004) is of a great economic importance; it is even a monoculture in many regions 7,8, 9 . Although Spain is the first producer there are only 17 Protected With an annual production of 98,857 tons of olive oil, Turkey is the 4th world olive producer 16 . • Among the EU non-producing countries of olive oil, Germany and United Kingdom are the main consumers, with 24,000 t and 23,000 t respectively. Germany has been taken into consideration in the survey, as they have an important packaging, marketing and distribution activities.

SURVEY
In the design of the questionnaire (see Annex I), used to survey the producing SMEs in the countries selected in this study and some non producing German SMEs, the following specifications were taken into consideration: • It should not be too long (11 blocks of questions) • The answers requested should only be: yes or no. • It would be translated into every language of the countries surveyed The total number of contacts made, mainly SMEs, by country was: The total number of contacted companies, cooperatives and associations was 1,158, and the replies, that were completed by the SMEs and associations, were 700. The answer rate achieved was 60.14%.
The questionnaires were distributed using different forms of communication, so as to gain access to the largest number of SMEs: • Personal contact, mainly at the food fairs attended • Telephone • Fax • Post • e-mail: after a telephone call, sending them the survey as an attachment or even within the main body of the e-mail to facilitate the process Among the surveyed SMEs, the most interested and receptive in answering the questionnaires, were those who already had some ICTs implemented, owned a computer, had e-mail and used basic computer tools.
All data were collected and implemented into a database, with 87 fields, of which 13 were fields of general identification of the enterprises, and 74 fields related to the questions asked in the questionnaire.

Country distribution
The distribution of the 700 filled questionnaires obtained by country is shown in table II. It includes   210 Grasas y Aceites the number of SMEs in the olive oil sector and the number of those that were really surveyed. The data corresponding to the 4 blocks of questions included in this group distributed by country seemed to follow the same trend as the aggregated data. The percentage of error for the total of the surveys carried out in the different countries was 3.6 %.

Subject distribution
The results of the surveys will be analysed by six groups of questions: 1. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs): blocks of questions 1 to 4 2. Legislation and Food Regulations: block of questions 5 3. Environment: block of questions 6 4. Quality Issues: blocks of questions 7 and 8 5. Training: blocks of questions 9 6. Clients and Suppliers: blocks of questions 10

Information and communication technologies, ICTS
It has been set out in four different sections: a) Infrastructures in ICTs. Most of the companies (93%) have at least one personal computer, (88%) with Internet connection and (86%) e-mail. The programs more extensively used are those on management (Excel 83%, sales and accounting 73%). The programs less used are those on web page creation and graphic design (14%). In spite of it, nearly half of those surveyed (48%) have a company web page. (See Figure 1). b) Use of computers. According to the survey, an increasing number of SMEs frequently uses computers: Internet and e-mail (83%). They also agree that these tools are or might be helpful to obtain information of interest to the company (93%), to contact different administrations (81%), clients and suppliers (89%). An 86% believes that these tools could allow them to improve the company image and obtain more publicity for their products, as well as increase their competitiveness and visibility. A high percentage, 53%, still finds ICTs complex and expensive to install and use, and 66% are afraid of security problems, as well as computer viruses. 64% also state that their clients and suppliers use these technologies. (See figure 2) c) ICT training requirements. The "web page design" training program has raised the greatest interest of all training offers, keeping in mind that only 48% of the SMEs have a web page. (See Figure 3) d) Type of information desired. Documents on legislation and regulations is the most demanded type of information (88%), followed by information on public subsidies and grants (84%), and price lists in different markets (84%). The less attractive information was that related to research projects, patents and scientific databases (61%). This result evidences a fact of great concern: the gap between Research and Development (R&D) organisations

Legislation and food regulations
85% of the enterprises surveyed showed interest on information on health safety and on legislation related to olive oil and table olive, 84% on labelling regulations, product presentation and publicity, and 74% on subjects related to the introduction of health claims in food. (See figure 5).

Environment
From the companies that were surveyed, 78% are interested in increasing their general knowledge in environmental legislation (see Figure 6)

Quality issues
It has been broken down into two sets of questions: a) Basic quality systems introduced in the company. The data obtained shows that 62% of the companies have some kind of quality control system. Within this percentage, the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point System is the most used (63%). (See Figure 7) b) Other aspects related to areas of quality control introduced in the companies. 76% of the SMEs show interest in the application of new

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Grasas y Aceites technologies in their production processes. As for the regular controls carried out, the physical-chemical, biochemical and microbiological controls are those mostly performed (69%). (See Figure 8)

Training
This group has 12 questions that cover a wide range of possible courses basically in two subjects: food quality and marketing techniques. The results obtained are the following: a) Courses on quality: 88% of the companies show a great interest in courses on overall quality improvement techniques: 78% would be interested in sensorial analysis training courses (training in olive and olive oil tasting), 77% in analytical measurements in quality control and 68% in processing technologies. b) Marketing courses: 81% of the companies surveyed are interested in marketing and commercial promotion training courses, and 76% in product export courses. (See Figure 9)

Clients and suppliers
With respect to the communication channels employed by SMEs to approach their clients and suppliers, a 93% prefers personal face-to-face interviews and only a 34% uses Internet to communicate. (See Figure 10)

ANALYSIS BY SIZE
The distribution of SMEs surveyed by size is presented in Table III and the distribution by country in Figure 11: Table III   1XPEHURIHPSOR\HHV 3HUFHQWDJHRIFRPSDQLHV VXUYH\HG

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In Spain, Italy and France, most of the companies contacted are very small (1-5 employees) with 58%, 82% and 64% percentages respectively. It has to be remarked, once again, that in the case of Germany, the figures are not comparable, as the German SMEs contacted are only packaging and distribution companies.

ANALYSIS BY ACTIVITY
The distribution of the SMEs by type of activity is: (*) The total number obtained adding the number of companies by activity is higher than 700 as many companies have more than one activity.
There are no significant differences in the replies obtained that will allow to establish differences according to the type of activities.

CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY
The main ideas extracted after carrying out this work can be synthesized in the following points:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS)
• The enterprises have at least a computer (93%), Internet connection (88%) and e-mail (86%), with 83% of use. • 93% claims that these tools are very useful to communicate with administrations, clients and suppliers. • Half of the SMEs (53%) believes that ICTs are expensive and need more qualified staff. • Only 48% has a web page.
• In the ranking of acceptance of the proposed courses, «creation of web pages» is on the top (66%). • A vast majority, 89% of SMEs, chooses the information on legislation and regulations as their main topic, followed by information on public grants and subsidies (84%) and clients and suppliers directories (84%). • Only 61% shows an interest on being informed in research projects, patents and scientifictechnological databases

Food Legislation and Regulations
• The enterprises show a high level of interest in increasing their knowledge in these subjects (74-85%)

Environment
• 78% of the SMEs wish to increase their knowledge on environmental legislation and regulations, and 72% on the support systems for waste processing.

Quality
• Only 62% have some kind of basic quality control system. • The system most used is related to the «Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points» (63%). • The traceability system follows with 45% and the ISO 9001 and 14001 with 28% and 14% respectively

Training
• 88% of the companies wish to attend courses to improve the quality of the products. The most demanded are the following: Sensorial analysis (78%), Analytical measurements (77%), Processing technologies (68%), Participation in R&D projects (58%) • 81% of the companies show an interest in participating in courses of marketing and commercial promotion • 76% would be interested in receiving courses on export trade • The courses related to sales within the national market, participation in quality awards and local sales, present a demand of 71%, 66% and 65.8% respectively

Communication of companies with clients and suppliers
• The 93% of SMEs prefers to communicate with their clients and suppliers face-to-face • Only a 34% uses Internet to communicate