Recent News

A Greek busi­ness­man who ran a large oil and gas ship­ping com­pany and pro­duced an award-win­ning olive oil on his fam­i­ly’s farm on Crete has died, his death ruled a sui­cide, accord­ing to reports.

Kyriakos Mamidakis, 84, was chair­man of Mamidoil-Jetoil, a fuel trans­porter that oper­ates around 600 gas sta­tions in Greece, accord­ing to the Associated Press (AP).

The Mamidakis fam­ily pro­duces Anoskeli olive oil, a Silver Award win­ner at the 2013 New York International Olive Oil Competition.

Mamidakis founded the Anoskeli Agricultural Company in 1983, named after his birth­place, a small vil­lage near Chania, Crete where his fam­ily pro­duces Anoskeli olive oil and wine under the name ​“Ano Playa.”

According to the com­pa­ny’s web­site, the estate includes its own ​“state of the art olive oil plant and a bou­tique win­ery as well as pri­vately-owned olive groves of 122,333 square meters with 2,888 olive trees and 17,000 square meters of vine­yards.”

Mamidoil-Jetoil filed for bank­ruptcy on June 9, the AP reported, hav­ing owed cred­i­tors €314 mil­lion ($350 mil­lion) at the end of 2015, with cash reserves of 600,000 ($668,000).