Freskon 2015

The first 'Freskon' International Exhibition on Fresh Fruit and Vegetables was held from 23 to 25 April at Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre. The total number of trade visitors that visited the event came to 4,155, of whom 600 were foreign, coming from over 36 countries around the world. In fact, they include the 120 hosted buyers invited by TIF-Helexpo. The number of exhibitors came to 200.

Speakers for the opening ceremony of the first Freskon

Mr Christos Yiannakakis, a member of the provisional Board of Directors of the Association of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Packagers-Transporters, noted that, based on his twenty years of experience in similar exhibitions

"The deputy Minister of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction (Macedonia-Thrace), Ms Maria Kollia-Tsaroucha, noted that primary production can become the "vehicle" that will lead the country out of crisis, characterising TIF-Helexpo as a factor for the promotion of agricultural products."

The President of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Tassos Tzikas, stressing that the sector needed an exhibition such as Freskon.

Minister of Rural Development and Food, Mr Evangelos Apostolou, noted that TIF-Helexpo can serve as a launching pad for the entry of Greek agricultural products into international markets

Mr Evangelou stressed that during a period of crisis, exports of Greek fruit rose by 30% in value and 37% in volume over the course of the last five years.

Ms Maria Kollia-Tsaroucha with Mr Tassos Tzikas during the opening ceremony

General Manager Christina Manosis of Zeus Kiwi, Zeus is still busy testing new green kiwifruit variety

The Kolios brothers of Kolios: President, C.E.O. Christis Kolios and General Manager, Georgios Kolios, soon new variety of kiwi will be available

Ms. Katerina with General Manager Panagiotis Kakafikas of Central Market of Thessaloniki

Managing Director Ioannis Stogios of Soulis, the company implements quality management system in all its productive and commercial activities, aiming to provide products and services that fully satisfy customer needs and company’s continual improvement

Greek Fruits promoter Konstantina Bouman(r) with a colleague

The young Bekiaris of Sparta Valley Fruits: Export Manager George, Jullie and Agriculturist John; specialized in exporting best quality varieties of oranges all over Europe

The Bekiaris Brothers, independent and motivated to make a name in the fresh produce industry

Mitrakos George of Elios Fruit (Greece), the company is known for Afrati pomegranate variety which can be peeled easily and its seeds have a very unique sweet taste.

The MartSoukos team: Antonis Martsoukos (Co-Owner), Nikkos Kokkinis (Business Development Consultant) and Petros Martsoukos (Co-Wwner)

Natia with colleague Rizoy of TUV Hellas - Greece, a certification and inspection body, 100% subsidiary of the German TÜV NORD Group.

"Lydia Mouratides of Export Credit Insurance Organization - Greece, effectively contributes to the "extroversion"of the Greek economy."

Ms. Flora or Myrathon Herbs - Greece, offers a wide selection of organic herbs for culinary and medicinal use

Kotsifos Nicolas and Anastasia Chatsidaki of Chatzidaki (Greece), trading fruits such as: kiwi, pear, apricot, cherry and many more.

Mpeutikayra and Sophia of AC Tirnavos (Greece), a first-level productive cooperation (founded in 1928) with 165 producers – members, having a wide range of agricultural products (fruits) which are produced by its members and are distributed through the organization.

Avgerinos Chatzichryssos, General & Sales Manager of Forlabels (Greece), it has a facility of 3,500 sq. m. which stands on a privately owned area of 6,700 sq. m. in Schimatari, Boeotia

Clio and Theodosiou for Tsakiris Iraklis: Wholesaler, Importer and Exporter of Central Market of Thessaloniki

From Agrolab RDS (Greece): George Stratakis (Head of Mktng.)and Dr. Alexander Giannousios (GM); Agrolab is a major provider of Integrated Laboratory & Consultancy Solutions in South-Eastern Europe

"Georgiadou Sofronia with Sales Executive Filippos Zlatanis of Hellenic Farming, established in 2001 as a joint venture of Greece's "REDESTOS - Efthymiadis Agrotechnology Group" and the Japanese multinational MITSUI & Co. Ltd."

Anastasia and Konstantina of Westlandfruit, engaged in trading, distribution and exporting of agricultural products

Galandis Dimitris and Ovezik Andreas of Neos Aliakmon, Neos Cooperative produces apples, cherries, apricots, pears, plums, lotuses (persimmon) and pomegranates, but the main production is peaches, nectarines, and kiwis.

The Nespar team (AC Chrisochori - Kavala): Michalis (President), Konstantinos (Agronomist / Bus Developer) and Niki (Agronomist / Bus Developer), aims to increase the quantity of the produced fruits and vegetables as well as the expansion to more plantations that thrive in Nestos Valley

Lia Patika of Emphyton Greece, engaged in the field of agricultural crops and products

Natasia for AC Episkopi, the has 500 members - farmers and it assembles annually more from 15000 tons of fresh fruits

Natasia of Papastamatakis.. a Greek company that offers banana from Latin America

Panagiotis Antonakis of Greek Onions (Greece), produce, store and market onions all year round.. production begins, each year around the beginning of May

Aris Beis of Novacert LTD, aims to offer integrated interventions in agricultural, food and environmental industry sectors through the provision of innovative services and actions.

Irini and Zara of Grekko Fruta, their facility has capacity of processing over 400 tones of fruits per day and well suited for harvest collection, sorting and distribution

Antonis (GM) with Elsa and Marios of Antonis Vezyroglou & Co., specializes in the production of fresh leafy vegetables. The product quality and company reliability are guaranteed by the trained personnel and the experienced agronomists of the company.

Nikoleta and Catherine of Novacert, Greece

Assistant Director Angelos Theodorou of AC Zagora, collects, maintains, packs and distributes almost 100% of the apple production of the area (10.000 to 15.000 tonnes per year), as well as other products produced, and is one of the most important economic entities of Magnesia.

Lead Auditor Apostolos Vrettos of QMSCERT Certification Body, the company is active in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Turkey, Poland and generally in the Balkans and the countries of the Mediterranean having inspected more than 5000 organizations and is constantly gaining the trust of more customer

Mr. Schotman of Schotman Hendrik (Greece), a private owned company active in the production, storage, processing, packaging and export of agricultural products such as asparagus, table grapes and kiwifruit.

Roza Paraskevi with Despina Vikia for Region of Central Macedonia

Kostas Micholitsis of Biokarpos, invested a new modern facility and fully equipped to cover every need for quality and safe production, packaging and marketing of organic fresh fruits and vegetables.

Ms. Irene for Taktikos, a company specializing in the production and packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables. The main products are strawberry, potato, green beans, watermelons, melons and other goods that our region offers

Sales Manager Giorgos Dimitropoulos of Arka Froz, concentrates on apples and peaches

Ms. Emmanuela for Velissaridis (Greece), the company offers peaches, apples and nectarines

Ms. Jullie of Sparta Valley Fruits, privately owned company, established in Sparta, Laconia, with the aim of exporting oranges.

Managing Director Constantinos Karachristos of Laconic Gardens (Greece), were created by the need of a total concept for BIOFRESH SA and of the farmers need for a modern farming solution.

Dimitris Paulakis of Panmonotiki (Greece)

Evangelos and Maria of Zampoukas (Greece)

Maria Tsanou and George Bonaros of Pantelidis, established itself in industrial weighing and today is the only vertically integrated and reliable Greek plant - disposal of industrial electronic weighing equipment.

Owner John Scopelitis of J.S Scopelitis, the company takes action in the import of machines used for food processing machinery.

ASOP Episkopi (Greece), implements an integrate management system in compliance with the conditions of the AGRO 2-1, 2-2 standards, applied to the produce of cherries, kiwis, peaches, nectarines, pears, plum and apples.

Ms. Katerina of Central Market of Thessaloniki, Greece

The Central Market of Thessaloniki stands as the major benchmark between producers and wholesale / retail traders for promoting products through retail points to consumers.

Marina and Sofia Central Market of Thessaloniki

The Technical Converting Paper team (Greece) with their Export Manager George Polichronopoulos (2nd from the left)

The Bisa Ambalaj team (Turkey): Damla, International Client Specialist Duysal Ekinci and Julie

Civil Engineer Stavroulakis Theologis of Tekamm (Greece), helps the client to materialize each and every architectonical demand by working out constrictive designs and details. We can solve any technical problem by offering a large variety of materials (insulating polyurethane panel with specified aluminum profile, lightening systems, insulating corners and cold storage doors, opening manually or automatically, doors flip-flap etc.).

Anastasia of Biliouris Packaging, manufactures high quality wooden boxes for packing fruit, vegetables and other products with modern machinery and production capacity of 64,000 boxes a day.

Nick of Olimpias Sales Dept., the company has 30 years of experience, expertise and equipment for any major project, using special machines for the construction of the machinery at a high level for the sorting, sizing and packaging of fruits and vegetables

Evangelina and Marietta of Novatec (Greece), a specialized and innovative company for post harvest solutions, engaged in research, design and supply of equipment and machinery for sorting, grading and packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Alexandru Ionita with George Pappas of Easy Pack (Greece)

Sales Support Sofia Sanida and Stoyanka Petrova of Sanidas

Owner Konstantinos Mirtsidis of Mirtsidis (Greece), specializes in Greek garlic

Akis Petropoulos of Molia, its vision is the long-term and strong presence in the markets of both domestic and abroad.

The Mitrosilis Fruit Exporters team(Greece), founded in 1976 and since then it has been following a dynamic course in the field of packaging and exporting fresh fruit.

General Manager Athanasios Kotzakolios of Asepop Velventos, improves the cultivation and marketing of the agricultural products of the Velventos area

Hulya Halil of Halil Vedat & Company Co., main product are cherries

Dmitra Temertzida of Latsios Fruit (Greece)

Batsios Stelios of S.Batsios, main activity is the production of woven labels for the clothing industry, as well as similar products (printed labels, self adhesive labels for barcodes and tags).

Gregoris Mittas of Parmenion Fruit Trade (Greece)

Sales Manager Elena Kolios with daughter Evagelia, company is in the process of procurement and installation of a traceability system. Products are kiwis, oranges, strawberries, and mandarins.

Ms. Anthi of G. Katsagiotis (Greece), owns a 1,500 sq.m packaging area, 2,000 sq.m. warehouses, 10 modern cold rooms of 1,000 sq... grapes as their main product for export

Noni and Christos Ikonomoudi of Ikonomoudi (Greece) , known for fresh Kritamo

The Kalaitzidis team: John, Konstantios and Ikonomoy Konstantinos (Greece)

The Akritidou sisters: Eugenia (l) and Anastasia (r) with Ekizidis of Akritidis Fruits. Company’s headquarters are in the Central Market of Thessaloniki (C.M.T.)where the company owns three major stores. It is also active in the business of selecting, sorting, processing and packaging of fresh fruits.

Vangelis Karaindros (Agriculturist and grower for Venus Growers) and his father (CEO of Venus Growers). Venus Growers is the largest producers organization in Greece and consists of farmers and cooperatives, as members, servicing more then 2000 growers. Venus is specialized in fresh fruit and canned fruit.

Salesmanagers Georgios and Dimitrios Tzounopoulos of A.C. Meliki. A.C. Meliki is a cooperative from Northern Greece and started in 1928. They grow and export fruit, the top three are kiwi, peach and nectarine. They export 90% of the product to several European countries.

Chatsios Anastasios (right) and his uncle (left) from Alfa Vita. Alfa Vita was founded in 1987 and specialized in global export of Greek kiwi, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plumps, grapes and cherry.

Dirk Landahl and Peter Abma of Fairtrasa Germany and Fairtrasa Holland. Fairtrasa's mission is to empower marginalized, small-scale farmers to lift themselves out of poverty.

The people of Tasty Fruit. The company offers a wide range of fruit and vegetables.

Markos Sapountzoglou (left) started 5 years ago his own company and produces generally broccoli. They deliver the products year round to retail chains in Greece and other countries.

Kostas Mavroskotis from Aroma fresh herbs. This company was the first one in Greece that produces naturally fresh herbs to consume fresh and not dry. They have eight hectares of own production.

Mr Theodozou (Zagorin), Mirtsidis (Skordo) and Rene Bouman(FMI) in the stand of Zagorin. The Agricultural Cooperative's Union of Zagora Pelion collects, maintains, packs and distributes almost 100% of the apple production of the area Magnesia (10.000 to 15.000 tonnes per year), as well as other products produced, like pears, cherries, kiwi and chestnut. They are known for their apple Zagorin.

Second of left: Kostas Biliouris (CEO of Biliouris Packaging). The company produces wooden boxes and pallets. They have an unique production line in Greece with manufacturability canvas Super Pitufo capacity 1kgr content and dimension 20x20x8cm.

Antonis Margaritopoulos from Matsalas. From its first steps, the company was active on the manufacture of machines for the processing, sorting and packing fruits and vegetables. On 1995 they made a contract with the Dutch company Greefa, specialized in the manufacturing and evolving of electronic lines of sorting and packaging fresh fruits. Now the company is the exclusive distributor in Greece and Cyprus.

Nikos Gkoutsis (right) and his colleague of Orange Valleys. The main activity is the collection, selection and packing of fresh products as well as their disposal at the market, in Greece and mostly abroad. The main products are oranges and watermelons.

Antonakis Panagiotis from Greek Onions produces and delivers Greek onions. They trade the onions mostly in Greece, but export them in the spring to the Balkan countries and different other markets.

The first day of the exhibition was not so busy.

Mihai Prodan (right) and his colleagues from Agribox. The Company has been established in 2009, but the experience as wood pallet boxes producer dates since 2007. The pallet boxes are currently used by producers of potatoes, carrots, onion, apples, garlic, etc, from Romania, France, Hungary and Austria. Agribox works together with the French company Klim'Top Controls.

The people from Westlandfruit. In the middle Abastasua Archontaki and on the left her father Emmanuel Archontakis. Westlandfruit has two factories for their own production of citrus and avocado. They export to the Balkan countries, Denmark and Russia.

Murat Durgin of BBC Technologies. BBC Technologies are specialists in the manufacturing and development of Advanced Processing Technology. Murat is salesmanager in Southern Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.

Christos Mitrosilis (left) and his colleagues from the company Mitrosilis. Mitrosilis exports citrus, grape and apricots to 24 countries in Europe.

The official opening in the evening of the first day.

The fairtrasa-kiwi's in the stand of Bio Agro. Peter Abma (right) talks with Stavros Elhefteriou and Kostas Papadopoulos.

There were a lot of presentations during the show.

Georgio Ioannis (left) and his colleague of Messi Coop. The cooperative is a group of producers for peaches, nectarines, apples, pears and tomatoes and other products.

Anastasios Giokmoglidis and Konstantina Pasiali from SkopSo. SkopSo is a brand of the cooperative Aspee Garlic of Vissa. They grow garlic and onions. The Agricultural Association of Nea Vissa was founded in 2009.

Benoplast is providing productsystems and solutions for transportation and storage requirements in many sectors like food, agriculture, automotive, logistics, electronics, chemistry and textile.

Novatec is the Greec dealer of JASA-products.

Katerina Xoutkopoulou of Tsavdaridis and Giuseppe Zizza of Decco. Tsavdaridis produces packaging materials for fruits&vegetables and Decco Italia is the post harvest division of United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) and a very dedicated specialist on fruit treatments & services. Both companies are working together.

Nice packaging: apple box for just one piece. The packaging was only made for the exhibition.

VegiTerraneo is a group of companies which produces and trades Greek vegetables like tomato and green pepper.

It was more busy on the second and third day.

Maidis Makis (grower) and Ignatiou Anastasio from Cacci. Khaki is a not well-known product in Greece and Cacci has the biggest plantation in Greece. The cooperative was founded in 2013.

Living Salads are trays of growing baby salad leaves, ready to be freshly harvested at home.

Steve Alaerts of foodcareplus was visiting the exhibition. Foodcareplus operates along most of the transport corridors, offering true global shipping and logistics services.

Kuno Jacobs of Nova Echibitions. He was promoting his own exhibition, Fresh Business Expo 2015 in Ukraine. That exhibition takes place from 1-3 december 2015. Fresh Business Expo is an international event that targets Fresh Produce Production, Processing, Storage & Handling Technologies and Produce and Supply in Ukraine and other CIS Countries.

Some exhibitors had a party in the evening.

Pedro Fernandez (second of left) in a meeting. The MAF-RODA Group is specialized in the design and manufacture of grading, packing, palletizing and handling fresh fruit and vegetables systems.

The speakers of Greece, Turkey, Spain and Italy for the cherry-season estimates this year. They all expect the season will start later this year, due to the weather in winter and spring.

Dimitrios G. Ntouros, president of the board of directors of Cherries of Rachi Olympus. Rachi has a name in arboriculture, especially in the cultivation of cherry trees. It is the home of two Cherry Associations whose products are distributed throughout Greece and in many other countries abroad.