After a six-month lockdown, some of which are only open to take away, restaurants in Greece are preparing to fully reopen by May 3rd.

While restrictive measures reduce seating capacity and require social distancing, olive oil industry professionals believe that reopening the grocery store could get the stagnant market moving again.

Now that restaurants are reopening, the demand for olive oil from restaurants and taverns will increase, but retail olive oil sales will decrease as many people will go out for dinner.– Despina Blavakis mill owner,

“Unfortunately, olive oil has not received the prices it deserves and growers and growers are concerned, ”said Myron Hiletzakis, deputy head of the Heraklion Agricultural Association.

Hiletzakis added that when the restaurants open they will be able to hold the 30,000 to 40,000 tons of olive oil that will remain in the reserve Crete. Otherwise, the next harvest season will begin with the troubling problem of lhorrible unsold amounts of olive oil.

See also: Exports and prices in Greece are increasing

Other Cretan manufacturers also expect an increase in demand. However, they are unsure of the extent to which the locally produced olive oil is being routed to restaurants and hotels.

“There are currently 100 tons of extra virgin olive oil stored in my facilities and I have had several calls from local taverns looking for a purchase, ”the owner of Despina Blavakis mill near Heraklion told the Olive Oil Times.

“The restart of the food sector will give the demand a boost, ”he added. .“However, one always needs to consider the vagaries of the market: during the lockdown, consumers used to do this Buy olive oil in the supermarket and cook at home. “

“Now, with the restaurants reopening, the demand for olive oil from restaurants and taverns will increase, but the Retail sale of olive oil will fall as a lot of people will be going out for dinner, ”the mill owner continued.

“There is also a case where restaurants and hotels use vegetable oils instead of olive oil to prepare their meals, which limits our market share, ”said Blavakis. .“I hope the market will gradually return to its status before pandemic. ”

Despite the mediocre expectations of producers, there have been some recent transactions in this sector where, in some regions of the country, small amounts of extra virgin olive oil were EUR 3.00 per kilogram of origin.

In Crete, the first sale of olive oil that exceeded the psychological limit of EUR 3 took place in the Zakros producers’ association in the east of the island, where 30 tons of high quality extra virgin olive oil with an acidity of 0.38 percent were sold for EUR 3.13 each Kg sold.

In the Monemvasia region of Laconia, a similar price of € 3.10 was fetched for 200 tons of extra virgin olive oil, with the relatively high price attributed by local olive oil professionals to the reopening of restaurants in Italy.

One of the highest prices of the season so far was achieved in Messinia, where a Greek trader offered € 3.51 per kilogram for 40 tons of extra virgin olive oil with a Protected Designation of Origin Certification in an auction of the Agricultural Association of Glyfada.

“In my opinion there is an upward trend in Olive oil prices now on the market, ”said Athanasios Katsas, a member of the association. .“We don’t know if This trend will continue for long. If we take into account what has happened in the past few years, it would be good for them [pro­duc­ers] start selling now. “

See also: Bring olive oil tourism to the most popular island in Greece

tourism is expected to get back on its feet in the country as well. From mid-May, Greece will start welcoming tourists from EU member states and other countries including the US, Serbia and Israel to get its tourism industry going again.

In Halkidiki, a popular tourist destination in Northern Greece, some olive oil professionals are unsure how the tourist season will affect the demand for olive oil.

“Olive oil prices in our region are usually among the highest in the country because of the superior quality, ”the owners of the bottling and export company Vagio Agrofarms told the Olive Oil Times.

“However, manufacturers are skeptical and are not currently selling, ”they added. .“We also have a lot of customers like tourist shop owners who bottle their olive oil every year to sell in their shops under their brand, but most of them haven’t shown up this season. “

“Despite the opening of tourism, there is still a great deal of uncertainty in the market and small and large manufacturers are still on hold, ”concluded the owners.

However, there are better prospects for the sector for Zacharoula Vassilakis of Ladopetra, a local producer and olive oil producer.

“The reopening of the food and tourist facilities in Halkidiki obviously requires more olive oil, ”Vassilakis told the Olive Oil Times.

“We sell locally and also export to Europe. To be honest, the pandemic has had little impact on our business, ”she added. .“Over the years our customers have learned to trust the quality and our organic extra virgin and GU Agourelio [early-har­vested olive oil] have always been a hit with them. “

“Times are challenging, but we assume that we can maintain our sales pace for our quality products and hopefully increase it over the next few months, ”concluded Vassilakis.

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