A
t the Ministry of Rural Development and
Food we have been pushing forward with
important and targeted actions to support
and advertise Greece’s high quality traditional
products in the international market. I have many
times stressed that quality is instrumental in pro-
moting our products. So, it is time to shift our
attention from low-cost farming, which had been
the priority in the past, to a higher quality, and
more export-oriented, agriculture. This reorienta-
tion is already underway, showing the first posi-
tive results.
As part of promoting its products, the European
Union (EU) implemented a major programme,
both internally, and in non-EU markets. We
applied to this programme and, from a total of 20
products that were finally selected from all coun-
tries in order to be promoted to international mar-
kets, six are Greek. In other words, a country like
Greece, with a population that accounts for 2%-
3% of the EU’s total population, has 6 out of 20
top European products, and this is neither a
coincidence nor an accident. Greek wines and
fruit are among those products. Therefore, we
have been utilizing these special support pro-
grammes to assist the producers of Protected
Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected
Geographical Indication (PGI) products, as well
as producers that implement integrated man-
agement or organic farming systems.
The signs are encouraging, as the share of agri-
cultural products in the Greek exports is increas-
ing day by day. In Germany, for example, which I
recently visited on the occasion of the
International Green Week in Berlin, Greek wine
imports have increased by 26%, while the corre-
Trade with Greece
98
The primary sector and the top-quality
traditional products of Greece’s soil and live-
stock breeding can assist the country’s growth
and be instrumental to its exit from the crisis.
We can utilize the comparative advantages
offered by our land and, by combining them
with the Greek people’s enthusiasm and the
technology’s advances, become champions in
exports.
Greece’s soil bears fruit
of unique quality – it
also bears opportunities
By Athanasios S. Tsaftaris,
Minister of Rural Development and Food
