Greek Olive Oil - Gift from the Gods
Today and Tomorrow
Though Greece is a relatively small country of only 10 million people, they are the world’s third largest producer of olive oil (behind Italy and Spain) and Greeks are by far the largest consumers of olive oil in the world. The average olive oil consumption of every single Greek man, woman and child is over 26 liters per person annually and even more than that on the island of Crete, which also boasts one of the world’s highest average life
expectancies. This is compared to less than a liter per person annual average consumption in North America.
In Greece today, olive oil production accounts for approximately 10% of the total agricultural production. Greek growers tend some 14 million olive trees – 1.4 olive trees per person though in this rocky and rugged land the cultivation of the olive is often not that different from the methods used in ancient times.
The olive and its oil are not only ubiquitous in Greece, but a vital part of the regular diet. Along with being the world’s leading per capita consumers of olive oil and the world’s third largest producers, they happen to lead the world in percentage of output that is coveted extra virgin olive oil: approximately 80% of the olive oil produced in Greece is extra virgin, compared with approximately 50% of Italian and Spanish oils. Perhaps it is no surprise that many chefs and culinary experts consider Greek olive oil to be among the best in the world. Indeed, though Greece is the world’s largest producer and exporter of extra virgin olive oil, this leads to what might very well be the ‘Achilles heel’ of the Greek olive oil industry: they still sell the vast majority of their olive oil in bulk to Italy to be blended with local oil and labeled and sold as ‘Italian’ olive oil for international export. To some Greeks it is a situation that positively drips with the pathos and tragedy of ancient Athenian playwrights.
Given the tremendous global growth in the olive oil industry and the new-found fascination with culinary excellence, many Greek olive oil producers today are looking to expand their market share and become more competitive internationally. The ironic fact may be that the very same qualities that sometimes slowed down Greek olive oil marketing in the past may represent their best hopes for the future. Now that EVOO is actually in the dictionary and poised on the lips of epicures the worlds over, Greece may well be finding a way to take advantage of what have sometimes seemed drawbacks; isolation, classic techniques and small, individual growers. As long as the world’s thirst for the elixir that is EVOO continues to grow, the country that produces so much of it may be poised for a new era.
Because Greece is mountainous and rugged and many of its olive groves are in small, inaccessible orchards, cultivation does not lend itself to mass production nor to machine picking. This very fact may be a saving grace for the upper-tier olive oil market. Small olive groves in inaccessible areas are by necessity hand-picked and often freshly pressed on the same soil where they’re grown. Greeks may today be learning to exploit this asset and move beyond the more humble business of bulk export. More Greek producers are going organic and learning to focus on single-estate bottled olive oils, often pressing and bottling right on the premises. Now if they learn to market better and exploit the growing international thirst for top-quality single-estate extra virgin olive oils, Greeks hope that their olive oil may secure a place in this growing niche.
Greek producers are beginning to see the value in marketing single-estate oil produced on a small-scale by traditional methods that have been used here for millennia, handpicked, stone-ground and cold-pressed. It is largely because of this new realization that Greece has recently had Europe’s most dramatic increases in organic farming. In the past decade, the production of organic olive oil has more than tripled in Greece and biological olive oils and controlled origin production in Greece are experiencing an astonishing 30% annual growth.
Austrian olive oil guru Fritz Blauel has been a pioneer in this field. Arriving in Greece in the 1970’s as somewhat of an environmentalist, Fritz saw what many have noted before in Greece, that many Greek olive growers have always been producing with traditional methods in an almost naturally organic fashion. Living in the Mani on the Peloponnese, home to the famed Kalamata PDO (EU Protected Designation of Origin), Blauel was well-positioned to enhance and even improve on this tradition. Blauel appreciated the traditional natural methods and saw that with the help of agronomists and proper expertise, the area could exploit this potential and become truly organic. He has done so quite successfully, with tremendous results. Starting in the early 1980’s, his Mani Organic Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and Kalamata Gold have become successful exports. His organic olive oil is also sold and available in Whole Foods in the U.S. under their North American brand name of Lapas.
“We saw all this good quality Greek olive oil being sent to Italy so we started off filling individual bottles with selected oil by hand,” says Blauel, “now more than 500 area farms have been converted to organic farming and we’re pleased to have been able to help show them the way.” Like many olive oil producers, it seems almost a religious passion for Blauel and from his early hand-bottling and labeling, they’re now up to 650 tons annual production and still growing.
His oil not only has the fruitiness and fine peppery finish that the region is known for, it’s also all certified organic.
“We can learn something about marketing olive oil from the Italians — and we can keep producing a top-quality product and carve out our own niche,” says Blauel, “this ethos is not only environmentally friendly but we’re able to set an example and show that it can also be profitable.”
Though Greece is a relatively small country of only 10 million people, they are the world’s third largest producer of olive oil (behind Italy and Spain) and Greeks are by far the largest consumers of olive oil in the world. The average olive oil consumption of every single Greek man, woman and child is over 26 liters per person annually and even more than that on the island of Crete, which also boasts one of the world’s highest average life
expectancies. This is compared to less than a liter per person annual average consumption in North America.
In Greece today, olive oil production accounts for approximately 10% of the total agricultural production. Greek growers tend some 14 million olive trees – 1.4 olive trees per person though in this rocky and rugged land the cultivation of the olive is often not that different from the methods used in ancient times.
The olive and its oil are not only ubiquitous in Greece, but a vital part of the regular diet. Along with being the world’s leading per capita consumers of olive oil and the world’s third largest producers, they happen to lead the world in percentage of output that is coveted extra virgin olive oil: approximately 80% of the olive oil produced in Greece is extra virgin, compared with approximately 50% of Italian and Spanish oils. Perhaps it is no surprise that many chefs and culinary experts consider Greek olive oil to be among the best in the world. Indeed, though Greece is the world’s largest producer and exporter of extra virgin olive oil, this leads to what might very well be the ‘Achilles heel’ of the Greek olive oil industry: they still sell the vast majority of their olive oil in bulk to Italy to be blended with local oil and labeled and sold as ‘Italian’ olive oil for international export. To some Greeks it is a situation that positively drips with the pathos and tragedy of ancient Athenian playwrights.
Given the tremendous global growth in the olive oil industry and the new-found fascination with culinary excellence, many Greek olive oil producers today are looking to expand their market share and become more competitive internationally. The ironic fact may be that the very same qualities that sometimes slowed down Greek olive oil marketing in the past may represent their best hopes for the future. Now that EVOO is actually in the dictionary and poised on the lips of epicures the worlds over, Greece may well be finding a way to take advantage of what have sometimes seemed drawbacks; isolation, classic techniques and small, individual growers. As long as the world’s thirst for the elixir that is EVOO continues to grow, the country that produces so much of it may be poised for a new era.
Because Greece is mountainous and rugged and many of its olive groves are in small, inaccessible orchards, cultivation does not lend itself to mass production nor to machine picking. This very fact may be a saving grace for the upper-tier olive oil market. Small olive groves in inaccessible areas are by necessity hand-picked and often freshly pressed on the same soil where they’re grown. Greeks may today be learning to exploit this asset and move beyond the more humble business of bulk export. More Greek producers are going organic and learning to focus on single-estate bottled olive oils, often pressing and bottling right on the premises. Now if they learn to market better and exploit the growing international thirst for top-quality single-estate extra virgin olive oils, Greeks hope that their olive oil may secure a place in this growing niche.
Greek producers are beginning to see the value in marketing single-estate oil produced on a small-scale by traditional methods that have been used here for millennia, handpicked, stone-ground and cold-pressed. It is largely because of this new realization that Greece has recently had Europe’s most dramatic increases in organic farming. In the past decade, the production of organic olive oil has more than tripled in Greece and biological olive oils and controlled origin production in Greece are experiencing an astonishing 30% annual growth.
Austrian olive oil guru Fritz Blauel has been a pioneer in this field. Arriving in Greece in the 1970’s as somewhat of an environmentalist, Fritz saw what many have noted before in Greece, that many Greek olive growers have always been producing with traditional methods in an almost naturally organic fashion. Living in the Mani on the Peloponnese, home to the famed Kalamata PDO (EU Protected Designation of Origin), Blauel was well-positioned to enhance and even improve on this tradition. Blauel appreciated the traditional natural methods and saw that with the help of agronomists and proper expertise, the area could exploit this potential and become truly organic. He has done so quite successfully, with tremendous results. Starting in the early 1980’s, his Mani Organic Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and Kalamata Gold have become successful exports. His organic olive oil is also sold and available in Whole Foods in the U.S. under their North American brand name of Lapas.
“We saw all this good quality Greek olive oil being sent to Italy so we started off filling individual bottles with selected oil by hand,” says Blauel, “now more than 500 area farms have been converted to organic farming and we’re pleased to have been able to help show them the way.” Like many olive oil producers, it seems almost a religious passion for Blauel and from his early hand-bottling and labeling, they’re now up to 650 tons annual production and still growing.
His oil not only has the fruitiness and fine peppery finish that the region is known for, it’s also all certified organic.
“We can learn something about marketing olive oil from the Italians — and we can keep producing a top-quality product and carve out our own niche,” says Blauel, “this ethos is not only environmentally friendly but we’re able to set an example and show that it can also be profitable.”
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