Halkidiki: The lack of land workers delayed the olive harvest

With obstacles, although with increased production, it was completed at the end of October, with a delay of almost a month, the harvest table green olives in the prefecture of Halkidiki.

Can the 160,000 and more tons that gathered satisfied the olive producers, but the lack of land workers in a percentage of more than 30%, created reflection and concern for the future.

So, while in previous years, issues such as production costs, producer price and weather monopolized the discussions of the olive growers in the prefecture, now the number one question in all their conversations is whether they will manage to harvest the olives, as he explains, speaking to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency Nikos Anoixas, member of the board of directors of the Interprofessional Organization of Table Olives (DOEPEL) and the Agricultural Cooperative of Agios Mamandos, in Halkidiki.

The lack of land workers delayed the olive harvest as mentioned by Mr. Anixas, pointing out that in addition to the significantly reduced number of land workers, “many of them were not “experienced hands”, with the result that the picking is done at an extremely slow pace”.

Indicatively, he mentioned that the daily wage for a land worker fluctuated during the harvest period at 3-4.5 euros per box, when in the previous years it did not exceed 2.5 euros/box. “Those who secured skilled workers also paid them in gold”, characteristically notes Mr. Anixas.

“A skilled worker, therefore, who collects around 40 crates of Halkidiki olives daily, secured a daily wage of 120 euros”, he emphasizes and notes that the majority of land workers who set foot in Halkidiki this year did not collect more than 15 crates. “Besides the Albanian land workers, no one has so far shown that they can cope with the rates required”, explains, for his part, the president of the Simantron Agricultural Cooperative Vangelis Misailidis.

The absence of a large number of mobile land workers this year from Halkidiki prefecture alone has resulted in a “loss of revenue of over one million euros for the state”, according to Mr. Anixas. In this light, DOEPEL is in discussions with members of the government in order to find the formula that will “bring back to Greece, the experienced workers who left for Italy and Spain”.

In fact, Mr. Anixas points out that in discussions he had in neighboring Albania with land workers, they confided in him that they prefer to come to work in Greece, but it is the bureaucratic issues that they cannot deal with and force them to go to work in other European countries.

Happy New Year this year – Struggle for the next one due to high temperatures

The 160,000 tons of table green olives in the prefecture of Halkidiki in 2022 satisfy the olive producers, as emphasized by the president of the Agricultural Cooperative of Simantron, Vangelis Misailidis, pointing out that in 2021 the growers lost 80% of their production due to fruit failure. Of this year’s total production, up to 20% went to oil, according to Mr. Misailidis, who emphasized that the average producer price was 1.05 euros/kg, with the first category paying 1.20 euros /kg. “They should have given us the price we asked for (€1.30/kg), given that production costs were recorded to have increased by up to €150/hectare, from €600/hectare in 2021, due to the international situation.”

In any case, as Mr. Misailidis reports to APE-MPE, “the olive growing year of 2022 also turned out badly, but we are very worried about what will happen next” as the high temperatures that prevail for the season, “do not they let the olive trees rest, which means that not only will they not give us the production we got, but we fear it will be extremely reduced. We’re begging for cold!’

In the region of Halkidiki prefecture, over 20,000 producers cultivate 330,000 hectares of green Halkidiki olives (200,000 table and 130,000 olives), while the trees are estimated at more than six million roots.

On average, according to Mr. Misailidis, the production is estimated at 50 kg/tree, while over 100 processing units operate in the prefecture of Halkidiki, with the smallest one processing 500 tons of olives. In a good year, in Halkidiki, from which 50%-55% of table olives in Greece come, the average production is 170,000 tons, while there have been years when it even exceeded 200,000 tons.

RES-EMP

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