Olive oil, honey, wine and olives — How are the foods we import from Greece affected by the ongoing financial crisis there, and will we start seeing fewer products on our shelves?
Coolers are still stacked with baklava, hummus and feta cheese at Sophia’s Greek Pantry in Belmont. Customers are lined up to buy tubs of her homemade yogurt.
"We are going well," said Sophia's owner Sophia Skopetos. "We have not seen anything different but I guess it’s too early."
Skopetos is still stocking all the usual products — from cheese to chocolate bars. She just returned last week from a visit to Greece, where food is a significant export. Here, prices and business are stable.
"I don’t know how it’s going to be affected in the future but right now it’s going well," she said. "Hopefully if the Euro goes down we can bring the prices down and then people will buy more. Right now everything’s the same. It’s too early to tell what’s going to happen."
So it’s business as usual, but maybe that’s because Skopetos gets most of her Greek goods from U.S.-based distributors, who deal directly with vendors in Greece. They’re finding creative ways to keep goods flowing.
“We have a few containers that are supposed to be leaving Greece right now, and believe it or not, it’s a problem just to get a trucker to truck the container to the port," said Paul Hatziiliades, who owns Extra Virgin Foods, an import business based in Watertown. "The reason being all the credit cards no longer work in Greece. Debit cards don’t work, credit cards don’t work. Truck drivers pay for their tolls, fuel on a credit card. So right now we have to pay them in cash."
Hatziiliades is sitting among shelves and palates of Kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, gourmet olive oil. He sells these products to local grocery stores and BJ's Wholesale Club. In fact, while we’re talking, a deliveryman walks in with a package.
“Oh, it’s from Greece," Hatziiliades said. "Dried figs."
Hatziiliades has a manufacturing business in Greece, including staff. They’ve all been bracing for the possibility of bank closures, he says.
“We have no intention of having any affect to our business," he said. "But we’re also extremely well positioned and have thought about this for months. We have company structure set up in Europe where we can make payments alternatively through other countries. The consumer isn’t going to see any problems. We’ll have extra legwork but that’s alright.”
So while products are still coming out of Greece, it’s not easy for them to get in. George Delegas, owner of Demos Greek restaurant in Watertown, says that’s what he hears from family and friends.
"They can’t import a lot of the items because exporting companies want to be paid in cash before they can send anything to Greece," Delegas said. "So the banks are closed and if it continues like this it will definitely be big trouble.”
Still, he and his wife are making their annual family trip to Glyfada, just outside Athens. She’s already there.
“She texted me last night and says there was huge lines at the ATMs at 12:30 in the morning," Delegas said. "A few days before there were really no lines at the ATMs."
That means it’s unclear how much food — and other souvenirs — they’ll be able to buy in Greece. But all those interviewed for this story are emphatic: The best thing anyone can do right now is look for the Made In Greece logo on products, and buy them.
