Greek crisis hits olive oil, wine exports

Jul 2, 2015

(CNBC) - Greek's agriculture sector was already facing a challenging 2015 before the economic turmoil this week, but now there's fear the uncertainty could disrupt the food and wine trade.

"There's a lot of speculation and even more tension," said George Frangistas, president of Incofruit-Hellas, the trade association of Greek export enterprises for fruits, vegetables and juice. "Clearly with closed banks and political pressure boiling over normal trade cannot go on."

Some food companies are refusing to make deliveries unless they are paid upfront and there are reports of empty store shelves as panicked consumers try to buy food. Also, key farm inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and fuel also are usually imported and will require payment in advance in hard currency that is no longer available.

"Imports (have) already ground to an immediate stop and exports are limited to the available transport currently in Greece," said Frangistas, who also serves as managing director of exporter Gefra.

Even before Greece headed towards default on its IMF loans on Tuesday there were troubles brewing on the agri-food front. Last year, Greece's ag sector got hit after Russia banned EU food imports. Russia was once responsible for importing more than half of the Greek peach crop and most of its strawberries, and the Greek kiwi fruit market was growing, too.

Greece's total ag exports last year totaled about 5.5 billion euros, of which fruit and vegetables represented about a third, according to Incofruit. In the U.S. market, top Greek imports include olives, olive oil, honey and wine.


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