Ecofestival: Organic Fair in Athens a Success

The organisers and exhibitors are very happy with the approximately 20,000 visitors who came to this year’s 12th organic fair in Greece (5 – 8 November). Although the focus of the fair was national, a not inconsiderable number of German, French, Italian, British and Dutch manufacturers were represented by their Greek importers.
The pace of growth in organic market in Greece (30 – 40 % in 2008) is clearly slowing down, but nevertheless a pleasing growth rate of 10 – 15 % is anticipated for this year.
Foto: Entrance of Ecofestival in Athens“It all began twelve years ago in the open air on a big square in the centre of Athens,” explains Eleftheria Georgiade (on left in picture) from Dio, one of the two big certifying bodies in the country and one of the fair’s organisers. After moving to another venue in a single exhibition hall, Ecofestival has now been held for the last four years at Helexpo Palace on Kifissias Avenue, the major route going north from the city.

“The fair is both a specialist fair and a fair for the general public,” Mrs Georgiade explains. She estimates that about half of the visitors are specialists. By charging 7 euros to get in, we restrict the number of ordinary consumers to those who are really interested,” she adds. If they book in advance, school classes are not charged at all, and plenty of schools took advantage of this free entrance on the first day. Naturally, the stands with most visitors were those that offered samples of food and drink, but there were other areas of interest too, with some teachers introducing their pupils to themes like the preservation of rare vegetable species. Thus, the fair makes a big contribution to enlightening the consumers of tomorrow by promoting environmental sensitivity and knowledge of food issues. Georgiade is pleased that nutritional awareness is increasing in Greece, but she says that despite this development they are feeling the effects of the economic crisis. However, she is convinced that healthy companies will emerge even stronger from the crisis. (Picture on right: Naturally, attractively designed, typical products of Greece like olive oil, wine, sesame bars and soap were on display)

The 142 stands were a very good mix: organic food suppliers, certification bodies, importers, natural cosmetics firms, producers of accessories like environmentally friendly shopping bags, specialist and general interest magazines, eco-address books and much else besides. A representative cross-section of the Greek organic industry was represented by the agricultural producers and the medium-size manufacturers and wholesalers. People could get information or exchange ideas with colleagues at the six seminars given by various firms (not well attended with 3 – 5 visitors each) or at the much better attended lectures (30 – 50 visitors) on a variety of organic topics (picture on left). Because of the legal requirement to work together with a professional partner, Ecofestival is now run by Dio and the fair organiser Vertical Communication. The total area of the fair is 5,000 m², of which about a half is occupied by stands.

The opening times are 10.00 to 21.00, because the Greeks have a different rhythm to their day compared with central Europe, and their busy period is from 18.00 to 24.00. Eleftheria Georgiade emphasises that the fair is a not-for-profit event, since Dio is an NGO and not profit-oriented. (Picture on right: Employees of Cretan Bakery present their tasty bakery goods. Crate loads were brought to the fair and samples were set out in little baskets, something that did not escape the notice of the visitors)

Whilst the wholefood trade is not anticipating a spectacular increase in turnover in 2009, some wholesalers and importers are benefiting from the fact that they supply both the specialist retail trade and the conventional trade and are likely to see a growth rate of 10 – 20 % in the current year. In the last year or two Carrefour, Delhaize, Champion, Veropoulos/Spar and Vasilopoulos have all greatly increased the number of organic items in their product ranges, and this is now contributing to growth.

The three most important wholesalers in the Greek market were represented at Ecofestival: Sevise, Green Bay (picture on left) and Oikologiki Agora (eco-market), whose owner Charis Korogonas (picture below on right) supplies his own brand “To Perivoli” (Your Own Garden) and a number of Greek brands to around 300 specialist shops. In Greece, Davert products are supplied exclusively via Korogonas. The wholesalers are happy with the current situation, although recently their customers have been increasingly experiencing payment difficulties. Green Bay stocks 47 brands, including Andechser (Germany), Vitagermine (France) and Alara and Clipper (both from Britain). The market leader Sevise supplies 25 brands and works with, for example, Hipp, Taifun, Vivani, Landkrone, Voelkel (Germany) Sojade, Le Moulin de Pivert (France) Bioitalia (Italy) and Ekoland and Fertilia (Netherlands).

The two biggest of the eleven Greek certification organisations, Bio-Hellas and Dio, were represented. Bio-Hellas says that it works with 12,500 organic farmers (about half of all the organic farmers) and 500 processers. Dio inspects 8,100 organic farmers and 900 processers. Dio employs 70 inspectors and has 40 administrative staff; Bio-Hellas has 100 inspectors and has 50 administrative staff.

There are no precise data on the turnover of the organic industry at the retail level in Greece. So it is not surprising that the estimates of, for example, wholesalers differ considerably from those of other specialists. Whereas DASO – Advanced Business Solutions assumes a figure of about 100 million euros for 2009, the figure given by Efthimis Tsibidis from Green Bay is 650 million euros, which is a huge discrepancy. But if we take an average per capita spend of 20 euros with a population of 11 million, which is typical of comparable countries, we would arrive at 220 million euros.

Many companies from western Europe attended the fair. Depending on their financial investment in the fair, in the case of Greek importers and wholesalers there were sometimes only the firms’ logos and a few items displayed on their stands. However, there were also some very impressive stands, such as Weleda and Lavera. The Greek representative of Lavera is Beauty Life. The managing director Kirpitsas Jannis (picture) founded the company in 2002 and now supplies 380 specialist shops with Lavera, Primavera, Natracare, Sanatur and Hoyer Honig. Turnover is expected to grow by 10 – 12 % this year. A new campaign is scheduled to start soon: 800 of 10,000 chemists in Greece are “unaware”, so they are being targeted with the aim of encouraging around 250 chemists to stock the Beauty Life product range by February 2010.

It is gratifying to see the number of Greek manufacturers of wholefoods and natural cosmetics rising and companies extending their product ranges and their presence in stores. Examples are the juice range OJ! by Biodos in Crete. It all began with orange juice (hence the abbreviation), but now peaches, apricots, pomegranates, lemons, mangoes, apples and pineapples are processed into mono or mixed fruit juices and sold in trendy design Tetra Pak cartons in wholefood shops in Greece and supermarkets in Crete. The owner, Koutoupis Vaggelis who founded the company ten years ago, is himself a citrus fruit farmer with 4.5 ha in Chania on Crete.

Joanna Theodosiou (picture on left) has a success story to tell about organic weekly markets. The project was launched 15 years ago, and now 10 – 15,000 customers a week from round Athens shop at one of the 22 organic markets in Attika. Another 14 purely organic markets have been set up in other parts of the country. “At each of these markets there are between 10 and 60 organic farmers selling their produce,” explains Theodosiou. The biggest one in Voula has as many as 75 farmers. In winter, the markets are held in the afternoon between 14.30 and 17.30, and in summer two hours later. The stalls are provided cost-free by the local authority. In return, the organic farmers’organisation S.y.bi.l.a.a. supplies organic food from the market to the local kindergarten, SOS children’s villages and other institutions for children. This means the farmers don’t have to pay rent and simply make a 20-euro contribution each month to their organisation. The advantage of this direct marketing is not only the incomparable freshness of produce but also prices only slightly higher than for conventional products.

Home delivery is growing in Greece. For example, Bio-box in Crete was represented at Ecofestival. A farmer from Chania on Crete produces about half of the vegetables that are distributed by the box scheme across Athens. The dynamic, university-educated organic farmer, Mr Kremmidas, says that the average order costs 30 euros. He offers two non-returnable cardboard boxes, containing goods costing 18 – 30 euros or 30 – 50 euros. He doesn’t require a fixed level of purchases, and he doesn’t have a standard product range. He takes orders by email or phone. (Picture: Konstantinos Kremmidas speaking to a potential customer about the advantages of home delivery)

In conclusion, it can be said that the people on the stands and the organisers of the fair created a very professional and appealing impression. In the four days of the fair, specialists and the general public got a good overview of the organic industry and were able to make many new contacts. Thanks to the positive prospects for growth, the mood was definitely upbeat – despite the economic crisis.

In Greek: http://www.dionet.gr/ecofestival