Olive oil in Crete

From antiquity and the glorious days of the remarkable Minoan civilization, through the harsh starvation period of the Nazi occupation and up until present days of financial turmoil, the olive tree has never ceased providing for Cretans in the most selfless and admirable way. In return, Cretans have worshipped it. Presently, 65% of the total agricultural area on the island (235.000 acres) is covered with approximately 35 millions olive trees. More than 95.000 families, agricultural or not, dedicate money, time, effort and, most importantly, their love and passion to produce annually 80.000-120.000 tonnes of one of the finest olive oils in the world. Based on ACOM^[1] statistics, 85-95%, depending on the annual conditions, of the total olive oil production of the island belongs to the highest category of quality labelled as “Extra Virgin”. The corresponding figures for olive oil from other major olive oil producing regions, such as Andalucía, Spain and Tuscany, Italy, are considerably lower.

That impressive statistic clearly indicates the existence of special circumstances greatly favouring the cultivation of the olive tree and the production of top-quality olive oil in Crete. What could those circumstances be?

Competitive advantage of Cretan olive oil

The superiority of Cretan olive oil in terms of quality is to be sought to a very rare coordination that literally took thousands of years to be achieved. Nature and Man, two majorly contradicting powers in our days, join forces in the island of Crete to produce a truly superb natural product, Cretan extra virgin olive oil (evoo). The unique microclimatic and soil conditions found across the island with sun-drenched days, mild temperatures and long dry periods throughout the year are Nature’s contribution to the silent agreement. For their part, local producers diligently apply thousand years old cultivating methods and harvesting secrets passed down from generation to generation, constantly looking to optimize every stage in the production process. At this point, respect for Mother Nature and sincere love of what we do, are two key inputs that define the entire process and provide a factor of excellence for the Cretan extra virgin olive oil. We do not use large harvesting mechanical arms to shake the olives off the olive tree saving lots of time and effort for ourselves simply because they involve the risk of hurting the tree and putting it in a shock with potentially major implications for its biological functions.  Likewise, we refuse to indulge in the high yields of intensive and super-intensive olive cultivating, two types of olive orchards which imply a much heavier exploitation of the soil and therefore a much faster degradation of its properties, which eventually calls for a larger use of chemical supplements. These conscious choices of the Cretan olive oil producing community clearly manifest a deep respect for Nature and a genuine interest for the sustainability of its resources. Growing up within an environment of incomparable natural beauty, one thing we have learned for sure is that we have to treat Nature with respect if we expect it to provide for us and our children.

In return of their respect and love for the olive tree, Cretans annually receive an olive juice characterized by an exquisite organoleptic profile, impressively low acidity levels and properties that last up to 2 years from its production. This combination of characteristics represents to olive oil experts a true winner, to olive oil producers from the majority of the olive oil producing regions across the world a taboo and to all of the Cretan producers an assurance that we are worthy heirs of a centuries old tradition.