Wildfires Devastate Greek Olive Groves
Pastor Dale Morgan
Aug 30, 1:27 PM EDT
*Wildfires Devastate Greek Olive Groves*
By ELENA BECATOROS
Associated Press Writer
ARTEMIDA, Greece (AP) -- The smoldering trunks of olive trees stretch
across mountain slopes and valleys, their precious fruit lying like
pellets of charcoal on the blackened ground. As far as the eye can see,
the groves that produce one of Greece's best known exports have been
devastated.
A week of forest fires have not only killed 65 people but have laid
waste to at least 500,000 acres of land, most of it in the Peloponnese,
the glove-shaped southern peninsula where about a third of Greece's
olive oil is produced. And the fires still burn.
The flames might not devastate the overall olive oil industry in Greece,
the world's third-largest producer: Initial estimates indicate about 4
percent of average annual production will be lost. But thousands of
farmers face ruin, and villages already struggling to survive an exodus
of young people have taken another big hit.
"This may not have a big effect on the macro scale, but on a micro
scale, the impact is huge," said Gregory Antoniadis, chairman of the
Greek Association of Industries and Processors of Olive Oil.
The Finance Ministry reckons half the farm production of the fire-hit
areas has been destroyed.
In a culture where olive oil is sometimes called liquid gold, the
spectacle of gnarled old olive trees going up in flames is especially
painful.
In this mountainous region 40 miles from ancient Sparta, olives provide
60 percent of farmers' income. Newly planted trees need 7 to 10 years to
bear fruit, and farmers "won't have any income from olive cultivation
during that time," said Antoniadis.
Nikos Bokaris, head of the Greek Union of Forestry Experts, calls it "an
irreparable social and economic catastrophe" that has left its survivors
"unable to meet their daily needs."
One survivor, Theoni Kostandopoulou, stood among the blackened stumps of
her trees and wept.
"What will we do without oil?" she cried. "Now they're burned and we've
lost them, what will become of us?"
When Kostandopoulou arrived in the mountain village of Artemida more
than 40 years ago, her field had just five olive trees. She and her
husband planted dozens more, as well as fruit trees, vines and a
vegetable garden on the edge of the village.
The 77-year-old woman said she sat outside her house all night splashing
water on it and managed to save it while others burned to the ground.
But her crops were destroyed.
The government has announced a $400 million aid package including an
initial $4,100 for each family that lost belongings and a $13,600
payment for those that lost a house. Farmers are to get $818 for each
acre of burned olive groves, while private donations from Greeks for
fire relief total over $52 million.
In Makistos, a few miles from Artemida, up to 50 of the 65 houses were
gutted, residents said, and a vast expanse of charred earth surrounds
the village, from the valley below to the mountain peaks in the distance.
The village's main source of income was olive oil, said Dimos
Kokaliaris, 42, whose father lives in Makistos. Now he fears the
inhabitants will simply move away.
"I had olive trees I had planted as a child. Now there's nothing left.
Nothing," he said. "Now we'll see what we can do. Replant perhaps."
Yiannis Pothos, 19, is one of many whose family long ago abandoned
village life for the city, but his father had returned to Makistos and
restored his ancestral home.
Now the house is rubble, gutted in flames so intense that the windows
melted.
"There is absolutely nothing left of agricultural land. All the olive
trees are burned, all the vineyards, and the animals that survived have
nothing to eat," he said. The family made wine and two tons of olive oil
a year to supplement its income. "This year, we'll have nothing."
But others in Makistos are much worse off, he said.
"There are people who are 80 years old whose houses were burned. They
can't leave, this is their home," Pothos said. "When someone lives off
the olive harvest, what will he do now? If someone has animals, what
will they do - What will they eat, charcoal?"