FILIATRA, Greece, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Greek olive grower Panagiotis Tsafaras has been forced to patrol his groves twice a day recently to fend off thieves trying to steal the crop as prices rise during a poor harvest.
We had never experienced this in our region," said Tsafaras, 63, who has been harvesting olives all of his life in the seaside town of Filiatra in the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
They use rods to beat the olives off the trees or silent electric chainsaws to cut entire branches that they load on pickup trucks.
The yield will be the lowest in years, mainly due to erratic weather conditions, including storms, droughts and soaring temperatures that have dried up the olives.
Filiatra, which boasts a 26-metre-high replica of the Eiffel tower at its entrance, is a quiet town in a fertile plain of 5 million trees that contribute 10-12% of Greece’s output of olives.
“We have installed security cameras and an alarm, we have fenced off the area of the oil mill to protect the crop and we are trying to patrol at night,” he said.
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