Kiwi emerges as Greece’s unlikely fruit export star

Greece has become the world’s unlikely third-largest exporter of kiwi, trailing only New Zealand and Italy, according to experts, who note that it is also the country’s top export fruit and vegetable product in terms of value.

Kiwi farming in Greece dates back to the early 1970s, when the first private plantation was established in Thessaly in central Greece. By 2007-2008, according to the Incofruit Hellas exporters’ association, Greece was sending 38,000 tons of the fruit to global markets, a number that shot up on rising demand from diet-conscious millennials to 91,199 tons in 2013. That doubled in 2021-2022 to 183,599 tons, with a total value of 228 million euros, and more than 10,100 producers growing the stuff.

Experts who spoke to Kathimerini estimate that within the next five years, Greece will be exporting roughly 600,000 tons of kiwi, with a value of 400-500 million euros.