The president of the National Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, Pavlos Satolias, likened feta to “white gold” for the Greek economy, referring to increased exports in recent years, with more and more countries opening their markets to welcome the “queen” of Greek cheeses. “About 65% of the annual production of feta in the country is now destined for export,” Pavlos Satolias told the newspaper “Peloponnisos”.

“In the balance of current transactions in the agri-food sector, feta contributed 1 billion euros to our country based on 2023 figures. We are talking about a dynamic product that is constantly growing, giving prospects both to the producer and to processing in our country.

It is the “white gold” of the country,” Pavlos Satolias said, among other things: “It is indicative that in 2014 feta made exports 142 million euros and in 2023 it will make almost 1 billion; we are talking about an increase of about 700% and that is why we must protect it from fraud, from misleading. It is a persistent problem, feta must be authentic. There is only one way. A strict legislative framework that will act as a deterrent. No one can play games with our country. Imports that didn’t come with the prospects and with the health protocol that other serious countries do.”

The HTEAS chairman also referred to the other slices, arguing that they are not of the same quality, stressing: “It is not possible for a slice of the same quality and production in our country to be cheaper abroad. Those who say slices cheaper abroad are slices in quotes, with another way of production that is not under the PDO framework,” he said, referring implicitly but clearly to the issue of misleading names, which call feta, yellow cheese or cheese without the proportion of sheep’s and goat’s milk provided for by the Community regulation.

“It is really high the cost of feta and the retail price today because there are also high production costs. If all the links in the production chain are not supported, we won’t have any product produced,” he concluded.

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