Mediterra, a subsidiary company of the Union of Chios Mastic Producers, is carrying out research with the aim, given climate change, of protecting the unique global mastic cultivation of Chios over time.

The project that has already started to be implemented concerns the creation of a 60-acre mastichon in a mountainous area between the villages of Pyrgi and Elata. Terraces have already been built on 18 of the 60 acres and 1,000 trees have been planted for which organic farming rules are applied.

“We are looking for new areas for the development of mastic cultivation beyond those in the fields of the southern regions of Chios. And at the same time we are trying to investigate the endurance of the mastic tree in more difficult weather conditions than those of the plain. And all this is always for the benefit of the cultivation of mastic and mastic producers” said the CEO of Mediterra, Yiannis Mandalas, speaking to APE-MBE.

“We plant and wait” noted Mr. Mandalas, stressing that the entire program has a 15-year implementation depth. “In conditions much more difficult than those on the plains we want to look at how all mastic tree sub-varieties and all cultivation practices perform. By monitoring their development by applying new practices, we want, in collaboration with the new mastic research center that we have created, to have results regarding the production costs but also the yields of the mountainous cultivation in difficult climatic conditions, our effort”.