The floods are receding, the damage to Greece continues: According to experts, more than a fifth of agricultural production has been lost in Thessaly alone – with consequences for supplies and prices throughout the country.
The tomatoes that Christos Leos offers at his stand at one of the Athens weekly markets look magnificent. But he’s not really happy with the harvest at the moment and points to a box that he has behind his sales table. It is full of tomatoes with black and rotten spots. “It’s from the rain,” he says. The storm Daniel also left its mark on his tomatoes. Large parts of Greece were affected by the heavy rain – but no region as much as Thessaly. An area roughly the size of Hamburg was flooded.
The region is considered the country’s breadbasket: not only numerous fruits are grown there, but also nuts and grains. In addition, 40 percent of the country’s soft cheeses come from there, including feta. Apples and pears should soon arrive from Thessaly for the weekly market in Athens, says Leos, who is also the board member of the weekly market. But it is unclear whether anything will come: “We don’t yet know whether the farmers were able to harvest the harvest before the storm and take it to the cold storage facilities. If so, then there will be no shortage,” he says.
A deserted vegetable stand at a market in the city of Larissa.
Staple food soon scarce and expensive?
Currently, the biggest problem is that the road network has been destroyed. Apples were grown in Zagora, where there was a lot of rain. Even if they survived the storm, they simply could not be delivered, says Leos.
“If there are fewer apples and pears this year, then that’s manageable. Then you can only buy one kilo of them instead of two,” he says. “But what about other foods like grains? Or olives?” He fears that these basic foods could become more scarce and therefore more expensive as a result of the flooding.
Telemachos also has similar fears from a small organic supermarket in Athens, a cooperative. He knows from his partners that not only the harvest has been lost, but also the packaging material and equipment they need for farming: “We don’t notice it yet, but I think in two to three months we will be the first See price increases.”
Tens of thousands of farm animals also drowned
In addition to agriculture, meat and milk production is also affected: almost 200,000 animals drowned in the flood, including more than 60,000 sheep and goats, 20,000 pigs and 5,000 cows. There is currently no sign of this in the Athens market hall: the animals that are currently slaughtered and hanging on the hook here do not come from Thessaly, but from regions closer to home.
But on major holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, they usually get meat from Thessaly, says Andreas Niotos, the director of the Athens Butchers’ Market: “There will definitely be price increases, but we don’t know how high, we can’t calculate that. “
The chairman of the Association of Butchers in Greece, Savvas Kesidis, estimates that there could be a shortage and higher prices for milk and cheese much sooner. In an interview with the state broadcaster ERT, he said: “We will still be happy about milk powder.”
Five years until something grows again?
Efthymios Lekkas, professor of geology and geoenvironment at the University of Athens, estimates that the floods in Thessaly have destroyed just over 20 percent of Greece’s agricultural production. He fears that it could be a long time before agriculture gets back on its feet – because stables and milking machines have been destroyed. In some places it could take up to five years for anything to grow in the fields again.
“There are deposits of clay and mud in the fields, some half a meter high. You can’t grow grain on these deposits because they don’t contain any humus,” he says. This is not normal soil that can be cultivated. It will take a very long time for the ground to recover.
Tomato trader Christos Leos describes the fact that it could take over five years before some farmers can work their land again as a “catastrophe” – for traders and consumers, but above all for the farmers affected: “Imagine you are a farmer and “Five years without work. Now there’s probably compensation this year, okay. But what happens next year? And the years after that?”