Agricultural Development Ministry

The Agricultural Development Ministry has approved the charter for the creation of the first agricultural cooperative in Greece with a private investor in its share capital. 

The approval came on Thursday in response to a request by the Parnon Agricultural and Dairy Cooperative of Monemvassia, which is based at Molaoi in Laconia in the southern Peloponnese.

The Agricultural Development Ministry said on Monday night it was keeping lines of communication open with unionists representing farmers in Nikaia, central Greece, who were meeting to discuss whether to scale up their protest action.

Farmers have set up 23 roadblocks around Greece over the last two weeks, demanding tax breaks and lower production costs.

Legal experts are in disagreement about the potential benefits of a new legislative amendment allowing migrants without residence permits to be hired to work on farms as day laborers without full social insurance.

By Tania Georgiopoulou

Trucks carrying olives from the Peloponnese ? mainly Ilia ? have been ferried across the Adriatic Sea, as traders from Italy have for the first time bought not only olive oil in bulk but also olives, to cover the loss in Italian production that has reached 35 percent this year.

Greek olive oil producers are nursing high expectations this season as the exceptionally bad year in Italy resulting from the destruction of crops by bad weather and the olive fruit fly, as well as the very low output in Spain, have opened the way for Greek produce.

Tons of peaches which are sitting in refrigerators following a flurry of canceled orders by Russian importers will be distributed to charities, churches and other organizations dealing with the welfare of vulnerable social groups, the Agricultural Development Ministry announced on Tuesday.

Regional authorities in seven Greek prefectures on Tuesday began assessing the impact of a Russian food embargo, chiefly on the export of Greek peaches, ahead of Thursday’s scheduled meeting of European agricultural experts in Brussels, where a broader analysis of the problem is to be carried out.

By Anestis Dokas