An exciting grape season is ahead, says George Saliaris-Fasseas, founder of Greek Grape Company, as after years of struggles, the exporter finally sees vines planted years ago be productive: "We expect 2025 to be the best year we've ever had. We planted the first Bloom Fresh vine six years ago, which was IFG back then, and it has been a hard battle to bring the vines to a productive form and the bunches to a great level. Nature needs balance, respect, and patience. We had climate change to fight, which can be said for all growers, but we were unlucky to receive extremely incorrect advice from various credible sources, which caused us financial losses, but most importantly, we also lost time."
In terms of production, this year should be quite a bit better than last year's 'light' season, Saliaris-Fasseas explains. "In 2025, we are proud that we have the recipe to cultivate our four varieties in a sustainable manner, which will produce exceptional quality grapes, with good volumes. Our Bloom Sugar Crisp is magical, and we hope that we'll keep on supplying this grape at such a level. Last year, we harvested 500 tons. It was a 'light' year, as the bunches did not weigh much. This year, we expect to harvest 800 to 900 tons and hope that September rains will not change our plans. We are also covering with plastic rain protectors, part of our Bloom Jack Salute production, which will help us harvest more fruit as it is extremely vulnerable to rainfalls."
© Greek Grape Company
So far, the weather has been positive, but Saliaris-Fasseas is hesitant to speak on the future, as he doesn't want to jinx anything: "In Halkidiki, we had great conditions this year. Flowering time was warm, we did not experience heatwaves, like other Greek areas and Murcia, and we are lucky enough to have ample owned water resources. Having said that, from this year I have stopped talking about the weather until November, so the official prediction is 'no comment'."
The plan is to stay focused on supplying European supermarkets, Saliaris-Fasseas states. "Since last year, we've changed our operational model, and we sell our grapes at our farm gate. We facilitate some of our clients for their export strategy through the connections I have from all those years, but our main focus is to produce and harvest AAA-class fruit and funnel it to various European supermarket shelves."
"We also keep on improving our sustainability practice. We were the first company in Greece to be Leaf certified, and we keep the Leaf questionnaire as a way to minimize our impact on the environment. We also love technology, and this year we piloted an AI camera on the tractor that counts bunches and predicts diseases," Saliaris-Fasseas concludes.
For more information:
George Saliaris-Fasseas
Greek Grape Company
Email: [email protected]
www.ggc.gr
