Extra Virgin Olive oil on the island
Alonnisos is covered in olive trees and oil is as much a vocation as wine. Ktima Marco is currently the only producer on Alonnisos licensed to produce, bottle, label and sell extra virgin olive oil. There is a social cooperative on the island, whose mill produces oil for internal use and consumption only. As part of Ktima Marco’s social project, as of 2022, residents and foreigners who own a house on the island and thus, necessarily, olive trees (building plots on Alonnisos are invariably located in olive groves), have the opportunity to bring their olives to be pressed at Ktima Marco’s oil mill and receive part of the oil in labelled bottles in return. In this way trees that would otherwise be left to themselves are cared for and the fruit is not wasted.

The mill and the Extra Virgin Olive oil
The production centre is located in Gerakas, in the north of Alonnisos, and was built from an old Kalivi, a small traditional shelter used by farmers during harvest days, when hard work and distance made it impossible to go back and forth by mule every day.

The mill is a small two-stage machine (i.e., it releases oil and wet pomace) made by the Mori Tem company.

The olives, cultivated according to organic farming principles, are harvested in mid-September when they are still green, an essential requirement to obtain high quality oil and to avoid rather common and deadly diseases such as the olive fly.

Since the mill is rather small, with a pressing capacity of 80 kg per hour, production costs are also very high, but the result is impressive. In fact, Ktima Marco’s evo oil has undergone and brilliantly passed the evaluation and tasting procedures by a panel of experts, and these are the identity cards issued year after year.