Cover Story: Greek Specialty Products

Posted by estiator at 11 June, at 06 : 08 AM Print

PASS THE OLIVE OIL, WINE, CHEESE AND YOGURT, PLEASE…

America’s Interest in Greek Specialty Products Continues to Grow

by Constantine Kolitsas

WITH the 2019 New York Fancy Food Show coming at the end of June, Greek food specialty companies will again have a venue with which they can connect to wholesalers and distributors that can get their products placed in restaurants and retail grocers around the country.  Last year, Greece was the show’s featured country, with more than thirty companies there to exhibit their products in categories that include olive oil, cheeses, wines and prepared foods, among others.

The show, which will take place at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan from Sunday June 23 through Tuesday June 25, is sponsored by the Specialty Food Association (SFA), a not-for profit association of specialty food manufacturers that has hosted the Fancy Food Show for over six decades.

Phil Kafarakis, the president of SFA, has been instrumental in helping Greek products to position themselves in the growing specialty food market, which represents $140 billion in annual sales, with a 16% market share of all groceries.  Interviewed by Estiator ahead of last summer’s show, Kaferakis said that the U.S. market was increasingly hospitable to Greek products as Americans gravitate toward ethnic food, with the Mediterranean diet giving Greek products a “halo effect” upon which to capitalize.

Among the products that have been leading the pack, of course, is olive oil.

The cultivation of olives in Greece dates back to 4500 BC Crete, according to archeologists, and has played an important part of the country’s economy and culture ever since, with Greeks consuming more olive oil per capita (in excess of five gallons per person per annum, according to the European Commission), and, of course, being one of the nation’s largest exports.  “Greek Liquid Gold”, as it is sometimes referred to, is known as among the best in the world and accounts for 15% of global olive oil production, making Greece the third largest olive oil-producing country, behind Spain and Italy.

With approximately 70-80% of the olive oil produced in Greece qualifying as premium extra virgin, Greek olive oil’s reputation for quality is well-deserved.  In fact, some Greek olive oils have been designated as PDO (protected designation of origin) and PGI (protected geographical indication) by the European Union, including olive oils from Kalamata (PDO) and Lakonia (PGI).  While the PGI designation guarantees that a product is from a specific geographic area, the PDO designation goes a step further, also confirming that the quality or characteristics of the product is essentially due to the area’s inherent natural and human factors (environment for the former, artisanal processes for the latter).  In both cases products so designated can have a competitive marketing advantage as quality becomes associated with the regions in which they are produced.

Although the primary export market for Greek olive oil is Europe, Greek producers have begun to make significant headways into the U.S. market, proudly featured in boutique food retailers around the country as well as in major wholesalers such as Costco.  At the Fancy Food Show, Greek producers have been successful in striking deals with distributors that will carry and promote their products within their customer base.

The food portion of Greece’s total exports for 2018 accounted for $6.1 billion, up from $5.7 billion in 2017, an increase of 6.85%.  The largest increases, according to the data, were in products that had strong brand-name recognition.  Olive oil, perhaps the most well-known Greek export, accounted for $594 million in exports, the highest of any product category, up a staggering $131 million from the previous year; a 28.3% increase.  The main reason for the tremendous increase, according to the report, is the increase in Greek olive oil consumption by the Italian market, where it is widely blended with domestic olive oil and resold.  Italy, in fact, was the largest importer of Greek foods in 2018, followed by Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, in order of volume.

According to a Greek government website, Greece’s agricultural exports to the United States in 2017 (the last year such data is available) were valued at approximately $417.2 million, led by seafood products ($53.9 million), vegetable oils ($43.5 million), cheese ($29.5 million) and processed fruit and vegetables ($10.5 million).  Overall, Greece’s standout agricultural exports were cheese ($476 million), olive oil ($465 million), olives ($451 million), seabream ($273 million) and canned peaches ($225 million).

WINE

 

A decade ago, a visitor to a wine store in Astoria, New York’s “Greektown”, might find a dozen or two Greek wines on display, with big names like Boutari and Hatzimichalis commanding the lion’s share of the shelf space.  Today, that same wine store stocks rows of Greek wines, with just a few shelves selling wines from the U.S. or Europe.  And if you want to find Boutari and Hatzimichalis’s wines, you’ll need to ask the store clerk for help finding them.  With over 1,300 wineries operating in Greece, boutique operators are giving the country a reputation for fine, hand-crafted, terroir-driven wines, and scores of them are finding their way to the American market.  With the rise of upscale Greek eateries throughout the U.S., those wines are appearing on restaurant wine lists, with large-city restaurants that have no connection to Greek cuisine or Greek ownership jumping on the bandwagon.  Naturally, liquor stores (outside of Astoria as well as within) are taking notice, as customers request wines that they’ve sampled at those restaurants.

“For the last quarter, we’ve seen sales of Greek wines double,” says Dimos Mitas, whose Connecticut-based company, Mina Foods, imports and distributes a growing number of Greek wines, as well as specialty foods.

According to Mitas, wines from Santorini are the most popular, with the island’s assyrtiko varietal being in high demand.  However, exceptional growth is also seen in other varietals, including Agiorgitiko Moschofilero, and Roditis from Peloponnisos and Xinomavro from Naoussa.  His wines are on menus of upscale restaurants in trendy West Hartford, as well as on pizzeria menus in small towns like Seymour, Connecticut.  Aided and abetted by Greek restaurant owners, the wines of Greece are extending deep into the suburban and even rural markets.  Thirty million tourist visitors to Greece last year have also played a tremendous factor in spreading the gospel of Greek wines, and of Greek specialty products and Greek cuisine in general.

OIL

 

Tia Markou lives on the eastern Mediterranean island of Samos.  Raised in the United States, she moved to Greece with her husband, whose family has been operating an olive oil company for three generations.  The mid-sized company, Markou Samos, bottles its extra virgin olive oil for both domestic consumption and export, with 70% of its output destined for markets in the UK, Austria, Germany, France and Belgium.  Still, only a palate per year makes it to the United States.

“Because we are small, we only work with people we know,” says Tia, explaining why her high-quality olive oil is not more widely distributed in the U.S.  Most of their distributors are businesses that her husband’s company has been working with for years, she says, while in the United States, she turned to an old friend, in New Milford, Connecticut, who has been placing her olive oil in markets around the region.

Tia’s story suggests the challenges that small producers – which constitute a large portion of Greece’s olive oil production – face.  “The large distributors want us to lower our prices, which is not feasible,” she says, adding that the price for her olive oil is “already very low”.

For larger companies that can risk dealing with the demands of larger distributors, however, the headwinds suggest significant opportunities in the American market.  According to Olive Oil Times, consumption of olive oil in the United States has increased by 250 percent in the last 17 years, exceeding 326,000 tons per year. Americans now consume on average 1.1 liters (.29 gallons) per person annually, still far below that of most Mediterranean countries.  As Americans continue to be attracted to the Mediterranean diet, that figure should improve, with even a small improvement having the potential for a dramatic spike in export demand, given the size of the U.S. population.  By example, exports of olive oil from Greece to the U.S. grew from 5,500 tons in 2012 to 9,000 tons in 2016.  As demonstrated, in the ensuing years, that figure has grown substantially.

According to a report by the National Bank of Greece, Greek olive oil is overwhelmingly sold in bulk, with less than 30% being bottled and branded.  And of that bulk oil, much is sold to Italy and Spain where it is blended with their domestic product and shipped as “Italian” or “Spanish” oil.

Greece, reports Bloomberg, is home to more than 520,000 olive growers, most of whom cultivate and harvest their crops by traditional methods such as handpicking and cold pressing (without the aid of heat or chemicals), which result in a product of higher quality, as well as a more wholesome “clean label” product.

DAIRY

 

Riding the wave of America’s love affair with Greek yogurt, dairy products from Greece and Cyprus are enjoying a moment in the spotlight, along with North America-based producers of traditional Greek products.  Greek company Fage, with the largest of its manufacturing facilities located in Johnston, New York, for example, has become a household name, challenging Chiobani for the top spot among Greekstyle yogurt makers in the United States.  Skotidakis, a family business begun in Ontario, Canada in 1975, is quickly carving a niche for itself in that same market, while also producing traditional styles of feta, ricotta and cream cheese.  It’s authentic, fresh dairy products are sold across Canada and in select U.S. markets, catering to the foodservice industry while also making headways with a retail product line that includes flavored Greek yogurts and yogurt-based dips.

In the meantime, at national wholesaler Restaurant Depot, for example, one can find manouri from Greece and halloumi from Cyprus, in addition to several brands of feta, with Dodonis among the best of its quality offerings.  In New York, foodservice provider Optima carries a wide range of styles imported from Greece, including kefalograviera, anthotyro and mizithra.

And in the non-dairy dairy category, vegan cheeses from Violife are gaining traction, says the CEO of Mina Foods.  From its base in Thessaloniki, Greece, the twentysomething-year-old company is now exporting its line of vegan feta and mozzarella (among others) to the United States, where vegans, vegetarians and “flexitarians” are enjoying its products, all of which are free of lactose, GMOs, gluten, nuts, soy, preservatives and cholesterol, offering end consumers “guilt-free and allergen-free” eating.

“The products are amazing,” says Mitas, who sells a good amount of the company’s vegan mozzarella to pizzerias in the northeast that are looking to cater to the growing number of vegans among the millennial generation.  “And while they’re a couple of dollars more a pound, the consumer is happy to pay a premium to be able to enjoy a real pizza out with the family.”

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