It is oval, with a shaggy brown shell – at first glance, kiwi does not look like gold. And yet, this exotic fruit has become the country’s first export by value among Greek fruits and vegetables, with Greece among the top three kiwi producers in the world after New Zealand and Italy, according to kiwi market experts. .

It all started in 1971, when the Naoussa Institute of Deciduous Trees brought the first kiwi plants to Greece, Thomas Sotiropoulos, an agronomist and head of the institute’s deciduous fruit tree department, tells K. “In 1973, the first private kiwi plantation was established in Thessaly on an experimental basis,” he says, adding that the Pierian Agricultural Authority then set up a network of trial kiwi plantations in the Katerini area. The bet paid off – today many people call kiwi “Pieria’s gold”.

In the 19th century, the English priest and writer Charles Colton wrote that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, in the case of kiwi, imitation proved to be productive. “Example is very strong in production,” says Deputy Minister of Rural Development Giorgos Stylios “K”, “example is followed by imitation.” According to Giorgos Polichronakis, special adviser to Incofruit-Hellas, the Association of Greek Fruit, Vegetable and Juice Exporters, since there is no “established cultivation strategy” in Greece, kiwi crops are mostly “imitations”. “They saw their nearest neighbor, who had a higher income, and plantings increased to huge levels,” he says. In particular, according to Incofruit-Hellas, in 2007-2008, Greek kiwi exports amounted to 38,000 tons. In 2013, they reached 91,199 tons. In the latest commercial period 2021-2022. exports reached 183,599 tons, a record for both tonnage and value of €228,073,219.

“Yes, you can say that the kiwifruit is the golden export product of Greece,” says Christos Kolios, president of the National Interprofessional Actinide Organization and owner of the Kolios ABEE group, which exports agricultural products, 95% of which are kiwifruit. which they have been exporting since 1994. “In about five years, we will reach 600,000 tons of annual production, and the impact on the country’s economy will be very large – from 400 to 500 million,” he says.

However, the boom in kiwi production and export growth is not only due to imitation cultivation, which, after all, is the result of high demand for fruit. In recent years, avocados and kale have become symbols of millennial healthy eating. But one of the so-called superfoods is kiwifruit, which has almost twice the amount of vitamin C as oranges. “Kiwi is a nutrient-dense fruit, and over the past decade, extensive research on its health benefits has linked regular consumption to immune, digestive, and metabolic health,” says nutritionist Andriana Kaliora, professor in the Department of Human Nutrition and Foods at Harokopion. University.

“This trend among consumers in favor of a healthy diet has turned them much more towards this product during the coronavirus,” says Mr. Polichronakis. “Kiwis are more popular and because of the many viruses, 2020-2021 was a very good year – with the coronavirus we had one of the best periods,” says Giorgos Kallitsis, commercial director of Protofanousi Fruit SA, emphasizing that the company is the largest kiwi trader in country.

In many areas, such as Pieria, Arta and Kavala, conditions are ideal for growing crops. However, according to Mr. Polychronakis, the intensification of production has partly led to a drop in prices this season.

“There has been a growth boom in the last 5-6 years,” says Mr. Callicis, pointing out that one of the factors that contributed to the growth of the Greek market was the decline in production in Italy, whose kiwi fruit was stricken with diseases. More recently, Greece has taken advantage of Iran’s embargo on kiwi imports to India by exporting Greek kiwi fruit to the Indian market. “It’s a fact that the Indians appreciated the quality of our product that accidentally entered their market – now that the embargo has been lifted, we must save part of this market,” says Mr. Polichronakis.

In 1971, the Naoussa Deciduous Tree Institute brought the first kiwi plants to Greece, and in 1973, the first private plantation was established in Thessaly.

The market, of course, also suffered from the Russian war in Ukraine, and not only because of the energy crisis, which increased the costs of producers – “maintenance costs, transportation costs, all this was borne by the producers,” says Dimitris Folios, producer. in Pieria, President of the agricultural cooperative Karitsa and Deputy Mayor for Rural Development of the Municipality of Dion Olympia. But exports fell to Ukraine, where they stopped for a while, and to Belarus, where kiwifruit began to be exported again in September. This is not the first time geopolitical events have affected the kiwi market. “Another important milestone came in 2014-2015, when an embargo was imposed on Russia and exports stopped,” says Mr. Kallitsis, the embargo was introduced when Russia was one of the largest importers of Greek kiwifruit. Still, Mr Kallitsis notes that Ukraine, which he characterizes as a good market for kiwifruit, continues to export now — “the western part was almost unaffected by the war,” he says.

Other markets have different difficulties. Mr. Polichronakis cites Egypt as an example, stressing that “he was forced to introduce a certain controlled entry regime for products – we export to Egypt by sending kiwis and waiting for the importer to find the money to pay for them,” he notes. . In Argentina, Mr. Colios says, they pay for goods 180 days after they arrive in the country. “That’s why we’re talking about market risk diversification – to open up more markets so that products can be channeled everywhere,” he emphasizes.

In 2021-2022, 315,477 tons of kiwifruit were produced in Greece on 12,568 cultivated hectares, of which 127,930 tons were exported to the EU countries. One market expected to reopen immediately is Brazil. Another one, Israel. Since agreements with third countries are bilateral, what is the role of diplomacy regarding exports to countries outside the European Union?

“We need a protocol in relation to our country and the importing country, a protocol on cooperation – diplomacy plays a role in facilitating many things in the ratification of an agreement with a third country and in cooperation,” the deputy minister states. Rural Development, Mr Style. “From now on, merchants and manufacturers certainly play their role – they open the network, the market comes by itself and solves many such problems,” he adds, stressing, however, that the ministry and regions are constantly present at international exhibitions, where the opportunity “for such communication, cooperation, for opening markets.”

“The question is how much diplomatic pressure a country can put on open markets like Israel, Brazil or Mexico,” says Mr Callicis. “Let’s say now we have access to the Thai market and Italy doesn’t have it. Italy exports to Mexico, but we don’t yet,” he emphasizes.

Although the kiwifruit is a dynamic crop for the country, K’s interlocutors emphasize that some changes need to be made. Mr. Folios and Mr. Kolios say other markets need to be opened – “these markets are not enough for the amount we produce,” says the former. Mr Kallitsis says the mentality needs to change – “we have a lot of potential as a country in primary production, we didn’t use it, production wasn’t modernized as much as it could have been.” Mr. Stilios, noting that yellow-fleshed kiwifruit, for which there is great demand, is now entering the market dynamically, emphasizes that the state cannot tell producers what to grow – this is what the market says. “We help from many sides, provide information, use our development programs, our financing, that is, the state comes to create frameworks and conclude agreements on opening markets – this is our role, we are not partners,” says the Deputy Minister.

Kiwi is now our golden product? He emphasizes that we have a lot of good products in our country – olives, butter, cheese. “The agri-food sector has been in trade surplus for the country for the past two years – this sends us a signal that we can and should support them and invest in them,” he notes. Kiwi, which most of the world would not identify Greece with, is now one of those good domestic products. “This is a developing and dynamic culture,” he emphasizes, “that with the attention that we pay and will pay to all of us – both the state and groups of producers, traders, exporters – we can make a very big contribution to strengthening the country’s exports and generate income Greece”.