The Central Fruit and Vegetable Market of Thessaloniki was founded in 1975. Originally run by the Greek government until 1998, it was turned into a listed company, though still with the Greek administration as its sole shareholder. About 800 tons of fruit and vegetables are traded everyday by the company.
“Our main focus right now is the promotion of Argentinean lemons. Lemons aren’t available in Greece in summer, so we need to import them from the Southern Hemisphere. At this moment, we’re set to import about 1 million tons of Argentinean lemons, which amounts to about 50 containers,” says company representative Athanasios Koukoulis.
“The quality of these lemons is going to be better than last year, due to the weather circumstances. A lot of the lemon volumes of the previous year were used for juice,” adds Athanasios.
Lemons form an integral part of the Greek cuisine. They are used in everything from salads to seafood. This means that the competition on the market for lemons is fierce. There are a lot of importers of citrus that are targeting the local markets of Greece, as it is a lucrative market. “The lemon prices went up due to a rise in demand during the Easter holidays. This demand will last well into the summer,” says Athanasios.
As for the future, the Central Market of Thessaloniki intends to continue its current strategy. “The main change is going to be the exporting countries from where we’re sourcing our lemons. Both Argentina and South-Africa have become a lot more important for our Greek market, as opposed to Turkey,” concludes Athanasios Koukoulis.
