A few months ago at a bank auction of a confiscated luxury villa on the island of Mykonos no one was interested in acquiring it. On the contrary, at a similar bank auction of an olive grove of 125 acres in Messinia, southern Greece, there were no less than 8 bids.
Maybe this is only a coincidence, but then again it can mean that things are changing and people are thinking rationally again.
The advent of the financial crisis has created many woes, but at the same time, it has created the need to look back to forgotten things and practices that can take us out of the swamp, like young people going back to work at the family property.
Olive oil branding ranks at the top of the inquiries advertising agencies are receiving and in the Messinia region over 20 applications have been submitted to the local Department of Industry during the last two months for permits to make branded olive oil.
Good luck to the newborn entrepreneurs, but there is more to it than meets the eye; despite the crisis, people have decided to do something with their money. And since most upstarts will invest their savings (bank financing is virtually non-existent), money will flow in the market, equipment will be bought, new hiring will take place, and so on.
Of course, this by itself can’t take Greece out of the burdensome predicament, but olive oil production is a real and promising business, unlike all the others that brought the country and other previously solid economies of Europe on the verge of extinction.
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