Thanks to great weather, Greece will have a large production of cherries this year, says Theodorou Kostas, owner of Theodorou Fruits: “This year, we are expecting big volumes of cherries in Greece. This is especially true after the mid-early varieties. Overall it means we’ll have a larger production than we did last year. This year we didn’t have any problems with frost. So the weather has been our ally up until now and even helped cherries to grow normally, without having prematurity.”
Although the quality of Greek cherries is good, a chunk of the produce is exported to competing countries, to then be sold as cherries from that region, Kostas explains. “Greek cherries have a good name in the European market. Unfortunately here in Greece, we don’t take advantage of the cherry packing and distributing possibilities of our country. Most exporters are selling their largest volumes to Italy and Romania, straight from the farms. As a result, Greek products end up at the European market as Italian or Romanian. The same thing is happening with kiwis.”
For Kostas, the German market would be interesting to enter, but it’s hard to compete with some of the countries that are able to produce for much lower costs, he states: “My main markets for cherries are the Greek domestic market, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland and the last three years we’ve been exporting to countries in the Middle East by air cargo. Personally, I would like to enter the German market, but almost all European cherries and Turkish end up there, so competition can be very hard and we can’t compare our price to other countries like Serbia and such. They simply have a small cost of production. Other markets that everyone wants to enter are France and UK, both are big markets, with a lot of potential.”
Thanks to the good weather the stage is set for a positive cherry season in Greece: “My expectations for the Greek cherry season are very high, if the weather continues to be warm then our cherries will be in perfect quality and we’ll have plenty of quantity,” Kostas concludes.
For more information:
Theodorou Kostas
Theodorou Fruit
Tel: +30 698 435 9551
Email: theodorou.fruit@gmail.com