Young Greek farmers great attitude leads to success

Greek organisation Thesgi was created in 2013 by a group of 23 young farmers, who realised that good teamwork would lead to better results. Since then, the cooperative has expanded to 75 members, who are mainly based in Thessalia.

“When I say young, I mean young in spirit. These growers made it clear that they wanted to establish a cooperative that was different from traditional cooperatives. They would work as a cooperative, but they would also implement new ideas on how to work with the market,” explains member Afroditi Bontzorlou.

The cooperative is mainly involved with the marketing of spinach, broccoli, lettuce and cauliflower for the domestic market and with the export of these same products to Romania and Ukraine.

The head office is situated in Larissa and the croplands of its members (30.000 acres) are extended in Thessalia. Thesgi produces a diverse range of agricultural products which include cereals, legumes, cotton and vegetables producing more 20,000 tons of products.

Thesgi has a logistics department dedicated to transport management and communications, and a general financial department that manages all banking and payments. While all co-operative members have their own responsibilities, they are supported by a centralised organisation.

“We mainly operate with contract farmers. At the beginning of the year, we sign contracts that determine the volumes and prices beforehand. In this way, all our members know in advance how much acreage is needed and what prices are obtained in the end.”

However, weather and fluctuating demand can change things- for instance, the European lettuce sector was hit hard by the cold weather in February. All volumes were reduced, especially in Spain. In order to still have their demands met, markets like the British retail sector needed to resort to alternative suppliers, such as Greece.

“The Greek vegetable sector is one of the most important pillars of the Greek economy. We need to invest in infrastructure, precision farming technologies and in improving our methods. We lack a central management structure, like the one in place in the Netherlands. We need a overarching organisation that takes care of management and marketing. This needs to be addressed in the near future, as we do have everything it takes to produce great quality. The weather is greatly in our favour,” says Afroditi.