`Athens Hosts Eleotechnia Mediterranean Exhibition of Olive and Olive Oil - Olive Oil Times
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Athens Hosts Eleotechnia Mediterranean Exhibition of Olive and Olive Oil

By Marissa Tejada
May. 9, 2011 20:56 UTC

Over one hun­dred com­pa­nies focused on olive oil and edi­ble olive pro­duc­tion in Greece gath­ered at the Eleotechnia Mediterranean Exhibition of Olive and Olive Oil in Athens. Vendors show­cased their lat­est olive oil stan­dard­iza­tion equip­ment, oil pro­cess­ing, bot­tling and pack­ag­ing machin­ery as well as new olive oil prod­ucts. Now in its fourth year, the event aimed to exhibit the most inno­v­a­tive devel­op­ments in the Greek olive oil indus­try, the third largest olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­try in the world.

“The con­fer­ence is a meet­ing point for coun­tries in the Mid East and in the Balkan Countries. We are the only one so far to orga­nize this type of col­lab­o­ra­tion in this part of the world for the olive oil and olive oil cul­ture indus­try,” said trade show orga­nizer, George Kouvelis of Compass Expo Limited.

Kouvelis is also is behind a new olive oil line he announced at Eleotechnia called puretaste.gr. He said that besides his own efforts to mar­ket his olive oil brand, approx­i­mately one mil­lion other Greeks are work­ing in the olive oil indus­try in some way. ​“Olive oil is a sig­nif­i­cant part of our national econ­omy, our pride and our cul­ture.”

Some new prod­ucts pre­sented at this year’s event included:

A New Olive Net

Violagro said their Olive Net is the first prod­uct of its kind to effec­tively catch olives dur­ing har­vest as they drop from trees.

“We were look­ing to buy one like it but couldn’t find one so we invented it our­selves,” said Violetta Zagoraiou who patented her inven­tion. ​“Its inno­va­tion is the easy instal­la­tion. It has a hole in the cen­ter and an open­ing along the front part. It hugs the trunk of the olive tree and cov­ers all the ground around it so there is no loss of crop.”

Made of light­weight flex­i­ble and durable mate­r­ial, Zagoraiou said she came up with the idea after she observed her husband’s dif­fi­culty in spread­ing olive nets dur­ing har­vest sea­son at the family’s olive groves.

“The old way is to fum­ble with your net and put rocks to keep it down on the sides. With the Olive Net all you need is two min­utes to set it up.”

Made from non-toxic mate­ri­als, the net also con­tains UV sta­bi­liz­ers for longevity. Zagoraiou says the net has another key fea­ture in that it does not turn at its ends.

Upgraded Machinery

With more than 52 years in the busi­ness of olive oil machin­ery, the Callis com­pany pre­sented its largest cen­trifu­gal machine yet.

“We’re pro­mot­ing our decanter type L140, which is the largest cen­trifu­gal machine of its kind, fea­tur­ing a capac­ity of four tons of olives per hour,” said Nikos Callis, whose father started the com­pany when he man­u­fac­tured his first hydraulic press for olive oil pro­duc­tion. ​“It’s an impor­tant machine in the mod­ern olive oil indus­try, used to sep­a­rate dif­fer­ent weighted mate­ri­als in high capac­i­ties.”

Hundreds of oil mills through­out the world oper­ate with Callis decanters and other Callis machin­ery.

“We sup­ply the right machin­ery from the start to the fin­ish in olive oil pro­duc­tion. We know our work and are proud to say our prod­ucts are 100 per­cent made right here in Greece.”

Plastic Storage

When it comes to the stor­ing and trans­port of olives, Commerce Ltd., a Greek dis­trib­u­tor of pack­ag­ing and stor­age prod­ucts says there is an extra value in using plas­tic prod­ucts for olive oil pro­duc­tion.

“We offer all kinds of plas­tic boxes and bins for the olive oil indus­try which is more hygienic. They are eas­ily wash­able and pre­vent cer­tain viruses caused by wood or tex­tile,” said George Vaxevanakis, gen­eral man­ager of Commerce Ltd.

Vaxevanakis said some inter­na­tional reg­u­la­tions state that plas­tic is a proper prod­uct for this pro­tec­tion. He said wooden pal­let boxes may still be in use but cer­tain weather con­di­tions can cause unhealthy con­di­tions dur­ing trans­port and stor­age.

“The United States is not accept­ing the pack­ag­ing of food in wood boxes and this is hap­pen­ing in Germany, Italy, France, Australia and Japan. We pro­vide the lat­est solu­tions and now we are offer­ing our plas­tic pal­let boxes. They are ideal because when not in use, they are col­lapsi­ble, fully mod­u­lar, and eas­ily con­nected with plas­tic pins, so they are easy to repair as well.”

Olive Oil Products

With more than 60 years in the olive oil indus­try, Eleourgiki show­cased a vari­ety of new prod­ucts includ­ing stuffed table olives with almond, gar­lic and lemon. The coop­er­a­tive also dis­played a vari­ety of olive oil soaps per­fumed with scents includ­ing san­dal­wood, jas­mine rose, straw­berry and vanilla and aloe vera.

“We are here at Eleotechnia to secure new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties with new mar­kets. We always try to present some­thing new and this year we decided to offer a great selec­tion which we believe we will get a good recep­tion in the mar­ket. It’s not just about the price, we are also pre­serv­ing our qual­ity,” said Vartholomaios Seiradakis, deputy gen­eral man­ager for Eleourgiki.

The coop­er­a­tive dis­trib­utes its prod­ucts through­out the world includ­ing Japan, China, USA, Australia and through­out Europe.

“We are a well-known coop­er­a­tive that believes in incom­pa­ra­ble qual­ity based on the pas­sion of Greek olive oil pro­duc­ers. We trade Greece’s top-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil, we don’t mix it or blend it. Our prod­ucts are pure and will be for the next wave of new prod­ucts.”

Exhibition Awards

During the exhi­bi­tion, 28 Greek olive oil com­pa­nies com­peted for the event’s annual KOTINOS Gold Awards which focus on qual­ity and pack­ag­ing inno­va­tion.

KOTINOS Awards for Quality Packed Olive Oil

Category: Gold Light Fruity
Company: Agriculture Union of Nileas
Product: Nileas Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Category: Gold Medium Fruity
Company: Agriculture Union of Kritsa
Product: Kritsa

Category: Gold Intense Fruity
Company: Kalampokas Nikolaos
Product: Eirini Plomariou

KOTINOS Awards for Packaging

Category: Bottle
Company: Tzortzis Michael
Product: Olvia

Category: Label
Company: Kagiaoglou Spyridoula-Revela Co.
Product: 100% Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Category: Innovation
Company: Tzortzis Michael
Product: Olvia

Category: Total Image
Company: Kagiaoglou Spyridoula-Revela Co.
Product: 100% Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil

More articles on:  , ,

Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles