While many wonder what impact yesterday’s election results may have on Greece’s market and exports, George Frangistas, Managing Director of Gefra and President of the Association of Greek Export enterprises for fruits vegetables and juice Incofruit, states that “it is still much too soon to speculate.”
He explains that “we have not seen the potential Government that will come out of this election and we have no idea what policies they might attempt to implement. In any case, Greek fruit and vegetable exporters are doing relatively well compared to other sectors; they require little state intervention, so all in all, there shouldn’t be any great changes.”
Mr Frangistas also finds it hard to imagine a scenario with Greece leaving the EU. “From a monetary point of view, I don’t see how we could go from a strong, accepted currency to a non-existing, imaginary new local currency. I just don’t see how this could be done,” he says.
He also assures that while adopting a weaker currency, adapted to Greece’s needs, could be beneficial for exports, “but this is still a very simplistic view, since, for example, paper and cardboard for our packaging would still need to be imported, and those costs would suddenly triple.”
From a market standpoint, it would not entail a huge impact. While it is true that leaving the EU would mean a reopening of the Russian market, Mr Frangistas affirms that, when it was still open, “Russia was not an outlet for most of our products. It was an important market for strawberries, but strawberries are not a major item for Greece. Russia was just an important client for peaches and nectarines and partly for kiwi, but it would not absorb our citrus, watermelon, grapes, apricots….”
In terms of logistics, Russia is not an advantageous market, as it offers no return products, so Greek exporters would be paying the trucks’ round trip. “With few notable exceptions (kiwi) I also don’t see any exports developing into markets that are not that far away, like the Middle East, as we don’t have the products that may be of interest to these markets,” affirms Mr Frangistas.
All in all, he insists that it is difficult to estimate how much of what Syriza has promised will actually become a reality. “Between the promised El Dorado and the reality, it is difficult to see where we’ll land. I operate in the real world, with real figures and politics lies more in an imaginary sphere of theories and utopias.”
For its part, GEFRA, as a 100% export-oriented company, has become an exception in a country where numerous firms have been going bust, managing to retain a stable, competitive position, despite the dire situation in the domestic market, where the risk of non-payments has become much higher.
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Author: Yzza Ibrahim / Juan Zea Estellés