With olive oil remaining in the category of luxury food, as its price is still much higher even compared to last year when it had already jumped (+49.1% in August based on ELSTAT) and while the consumption especially of the standard has decreased dramatically (estimated at -40%), businesses around “green gold” are booming.
Well-known businessmen, such as the former banker Nikos Karamouzis, head of the investment fund SMERemediumCap, together with the experienced manager Konstantinos Antonopoulos, president and CEO of Inspiring Earth, aspire to create the “national champion” in branded olive oil with the aim of exports.
Their joint company, which will acquire the majority package of the companies Latzimas SA, Elaia Sitias-LASITIA SA and Olympian Green International SA, has a turnover of around 20 million euros and the goal in four years is to more than double and reach 40- 45 million euros.
Having “taken” a position in the two major olive-producing regions of the country, namely in Crete (Rethymno and Sitia) and in the Peloponnese (Olympia), the new business entity will create a common brand of a “family” of products with the aim of conquering America, Brazil and Japan. The total investment amounts to 10 million euros.
At the same time, Panagiotis Monemvasiotis, the main shareholder of Venetis, known mainly for the bakeries of the same name, claims that the entry into the olive oil market is another business move by the company in the food sector, while the market is waiting for who will be the new owner of Minerva , the “oldest olive oil company in the country”, although it now produces very little oil. It is recalled that Minerva Olive Oil Enterprises is headed for sale. And if the standardizers’ big bet is exports, for Alexandros Kikiza, main shareholder of the Melissa-Kikiza group, the internal market is an equally big target.
Moreover, Terra Creta, i.e. Melissa’s arm in olive oil, currently has a purely extroverted character with 97% of its turnover, which will reach 40 million euros this year, relating to foreign markets. With the launch of ten codes of extra virgin olive oil on the domestic shelves, the oiling of which takes place within 12 hours, Mr. Kikiza’s aim is not only to diversify this “proportion”, but also to “reintroduce” to domestic and international consumers the Cretan olive oil. “The launch in the Greek market has an element of romance” he says, adding however that the group’s plans are long-term. “We are not bottlers, we are producers” notes features. Terra Creta’s three-year development plan (2024-2026) foresees investments of 5 million euros.
It should be noted that the domestic market of standardized extra virgin olive oil “translates” in value to 125 million euros and in quantity to 15.5 million liters.
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