`Hephaestion Was a Friend of Alexander's, but Not Cretan Producers' - Olive Oil Times
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Hephaestion Was a Friend of Alexander's, but Not Cretan Producers'

By Costas Vasilopoulos
Jan. 15, 2020 10:42 UTC
Summary Summary

The recent bad weather in Greece, named Hephaestion, severely impacted olive oil pro­duc­tion in Crete by caus­ing wind gusts and hail storms that destroyed olives on the trees, par­tic­u­larly affect­ing areas where olives are har­vested late in the sea­son. As a result, the total olive oil pro­duc­tion in Crete for the cur­rent sea­son fell far short of pro­jec­tions, with only 37,000 tons pro­duced com­pared to an esti­mated 80,000 tons, and only 17 per­cent of this quan­tity being extra vir­gin olive oil.

The recent bad weather in Greece, called Hephaestion by the mete­o­rol­o­gists after the clos­est friend of Alexander the Great, gave another blow to olive oil pro­duc­tion in Crete.

Wind gusts and hail storms swept away the olive dru­pes from the trees, adding to the woes of the grow­ers and pro­duc­ers of the island, after an ear­lier hit to the pro­duc­tion fruit pathogens had brought.

See Also:2019/20 Olive Harvest Updates

The phe­nom­e­non mostly affected some areas where olives are picked late in the sea­son since most of the island’s har­vest was com­pleted early this year.

“We have some late olive oil mak­ing ter­ri­to­ries, like the Fragka area in Heraklion region, where the olives are har­vested in late February or early March,” Myron Hilentzakis, the deputy direc­tor of the Agricultural Association of Heraklion, said. ​“These olives are now gone. It is a tragic sit­u­a­tion.”

“For the first time, 95 per­cent of all the mills on the island ceased their oper­a­tion at the end of December, and 97 per­cent of the har­vest­ing was com­pleted,” he added.

Consequently, the cur­rent sea­son in Crete is noth­ing to be proud of, Hilentzakis said, with the total olive oil quan­tity pro­duced falling far short of pro­jec­tions.

“We had a lot of rain­fall in 2019 and we were expect­ing a pros­per­ous yield of olive oil, esti­mated at around 80,000 tons,” he said. ​“But accord­ing to data from the local depart­ments of agri­cul­ture, the over­all quan­tity is only 37,000 tons. It is a huge decline. And another prob­lem is that only 17 per­cent of this quan­tity is extra vir­gin olive oil.”

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