The olive of gods and champions in Messinia

On May 16, Alexandros Rallis was in Olympia to watch the lighting of the Olympic flame. He's not an athlete, not a politician, and certainly not a tourist. This Franco-Greek is an importer of Greek products in France. His main product is olive oil from Messinia, a region in the south-western Peloponnese, the country's second-largest producer after Crete, whose main town is Kalamata. Olives have been grown here since ancient times. The Koroneïki variety is used to make oil, while the other, the famous Kalamata variety, is reserved for the table. A few days later, we meet up with Alexandros Rallis in a grandiose landscape of olive groves overlooking the sea. They're everywhere, even climbing the hills, planted to the height they need to survive. They are also planted in the backyards of houses, in every available nook and cranny.

Lack of promotion

Because it's an asset. For the country, for the region, for everyone - there are as many growers here as there are families. " We have exceptional terroirs. But the problem is that our olive oil has never been promoted. It has always been sold in bulk in Italy ", says the importer from the outset. To understand the olive oil market, a few figures are in order: Spain supplies 50% of the world market, followed by Italy and Greece in roughly equal proportions. The problem? Italy, which produces around 350,000 tonnes a year, exports twice as much. The balance is exported to Greece.

70% of Greek production is sold in Italy, transported in tanker trucks. " No added value, no notion of terroir. Bulk, mixed, repackaged," laments Alexandros Rallis. Olive oil is both a global and an ultra-local market. We shouldn't think in terms of countries, but in terms of regions. Italian olive oil means nothing. But olive oil from Tuscany, Sicily or Puglia means something to me. In Greece, we have exceptional terroirs, but it's terrible to see that this product is so under-valued. Especially since olive oil is vital here. If you don't have it, you can't do anything. Whereas in Greece, consumption is 20 liters per person per year, in Kalamata it's 40 liters! Everyone here is a farmer. Everyone has worked in the fields. They all know how to tend olive trees. At harvest time, four generations work in a field at the same time. Where else in Europe does this exist? "

The reasons for this are a lack of long-term vision and little collective effort to defend the product. The reasons for this can be traced back to the 1980s, when the European market opened up and bulk and tanker sales became widespread. At the time, according to Alexandros Rallis, the country, still lagging behind economically, was not ready to receive so much money and subsidies. In the end, the 2008 crisis was only the apogee of the apogee of this system. If, today, Greece is catching up, if Hellenic products are currently on a roll, it's often thanks to Greeks living abroad. They are the ones who select, import and distribute the best products and, for their customers outside Greece, revamp the image. " The French, Italians and Spanish are very good at imagining and creating places. If you go to a French olive grove that represents nothing in terms of volume, it's fabulous! There's the olive tree museum, the olive tree route, the beautiful building... whereas here, even if you see it everywhere, you won't find a place to taste the oil. "Indeed , finding olive oil in Kalamata is an almost impossible mission. In town, there are a handful of stores for tourists; at the market, a handful of merchants sell their surplus domestic oil in plastic water bottles. While for some, oil production is the main activity, for most it remains a way of putting oil in their spinach - mainly sold to wholesalers, it is for them a welcome thirteenth or fourteenth month.

The primacy of the soil

We chose the antithesis of what was being done," explains Alexandros Rallis, "i.e. to buy in bulk, resell and do big business. We started with very small quantities, with the idea of promoting our products in France through restaurants and gastronomy. Thanks to our recognition abroad, our oil is now in demand by restaurants in Athens. People are finally beginning to understand that we have a treasure in our hands. "Drawing on his dual Franco-Greek culture, the importer decided fifteen years ago to create his own brand: Profil Grec. Oils from terroirs, even parcels, highlighting their typicity, which depends above all on the soil in which the olive tree grows. He shows us the fields that, in his opinion, produce the best oils, olive trees growing in stony fields. " On the plains, the olive trees are very big and give a lot of fruit. But the olive tree needs poor soils and difficulty in feeding itself to produce oils with a high concentration of flavor. "Alexandros Rallis, who studied history and sociology, comes from a family of environmentalists and early activists. Born in France of Greek parents, he spent all his vacations in Kalamata, where his grandmother owned an olive grove. For the past two years, he and his family have been living in Greece for good, running his Parisian store from a distance, delivering to restaurants, and taking care of his mother's olive grove when she's away. Here, the seasoned environmental engineer puts agroecological principles into practice. While most farmers burn prunings, she shreds them to make a mulch that preserves moisture under the trees, providing them with nutrients without any additions. On her land, the soil speaks for itself: flowers in abundance, insects, life... Criss-crossing the mountains, it quickly becomes easy to spot those who treat their olive trees (some even hang a can on a branch to signify this) and those who use no inputs or pesticides. On the former, the soil is dead, burnt and nothing grows. On others, like Alexandros' mother's, life abounds.

" Why does Spain account for half the world's olive production? Because their olive trees are full of fertilizer. Their olives are picked by machine. There's no know-how. "In addition to not using chemical inputs, making good olive oil depends more on the quality of the soil than on the variety. Another important element is pruning, which revitalizes the tree every year. To produce, the olive tree needs to be stimulated. So you need to know how to read its branches, and bet on the good ones - those of today, but also those of tomorrow. Not forgetting the harvest. " All the olive oil schools will tell you that there are roughly three stages in terms of taste. The one at the beginning of the harvest, in November, very intense, very green, then the one in December, a little sweeter. And finally, in January-February, when the olives are darker. But I've found, empirically, that the soil is much more important than the harvest date. I've sometimes been able to harvest very late, in mid-February, and have very green oils. What I prefer are rotating harvests, i.e. harvests of all colors. In your net, you'll have all the shades and, as a result, it creates an interesting balance. "On these oil cartons, he always displays the date of harvest, which is also the date of pressing, as it has to be done the same day to avoid any oxidation. " The cleanliness of the mill and the blending time are also parameters that make for a better oil. That's about 70% of the equation. "

Climate crisis and speculation

Finding the right producers and mills is not the biggest difficulty. There are what he calls " little holdouts " in the region, those who work well. Rather than selling their production to the mill, where it is mixed with the others, they leave after the press with their oil in 17-liter cans, which they sell directly in an autonomous market parallel to that of the large wholesalers. For although invisible, the oil is there, hidden away in warehouses, waiting to be shipped or, worse still, waiting for speculation. In recent years, economic crises have been compounded by a climatic crisis that has severely affected olive growing. Three years of drought in Spain have drained oil stocks. And soaring prices. Spain sets the world market price. Prices have tripled in two years. Some growers, betting on further price rises, are refusing to sell their oil and are stockpiling it. This runs the risk of going rancid, as the oil cannot be stored for more than two years. Some families produce around 15-20 tonnes of oil," explains Alexandros Rallis. Let's imagine that a liter goes from 2 to 10 euros. That's a fortune for them! It changes their relationship with the product. I'd be very happy for producers to earn 9 euros a liter. But preferably if their oil is identified as being from the region, from a particular producer. To be competitive, the only small space left is to be qualitative. "

Although fragile, the movement is underway. Like others, Alexandros Rallis firmly believes that Greece has more to offer than its ancient culture. Even if the flame ceremony brought tears to his eyes. " It was fabulous. There were the two flags - of Greece and France - there was the site of Olympia. It was a very beautiful ceremony, with no fuss, no crazy tricks, but with strong words about the values of Olympism. Sport as a replacement for the warlike side of men, everything that has been forgotten by money, over-consumption... Above all, there was a simplicity in the organization that has been completely lost in France. I was moved by the Greek ability to welcome, to give. Simply."