A dozen years ago, Corfu’s olive oil production had almost stopped. Farmers were abandoning centuries-old olive groves as if they were worthless. However, Spyros and George Dafnis envisioned a transformation. Then they acted, helping to bring life back to the olive groves, the villages, and the countryside of Corfu by reinvigorating its olive oil sector.
In 2010, trees hundreds of years old were being cut down as 60 to 70% of the island’s olive groves were abandoned. Spyros Dafnis was shocked by this loss of a natural treasure. Although tourism is now Corfu’s main revenue source, he says “olive trees have been the foundation of life for centuries in Corfu.” As he told Greek Liquid Gold, Dafnis believes working with olive oil is “a way of living that is connected with our roots, and at the same time shows the way to the future. In our DNA, we are connected with this unique tradition.”
Spyros Dafnis and his brother George “wanted to encourage people to get involved in olive oil production, wanted Corfu to continue developing in a sustainable way.” Spyros says he was considered “the crazy guy in the village, because we had a crazy vision, a crazy dream, to think differently and act in an unconventional way.” Yet they honored and followed their vision. Why? “For us the countryside is memories, our past, our present, our dreams, and our future, and that is why we are making this effort to keep the countryside and the villages alive.”
Olive Fabrica and The Governor: Impelling change in Corfu olive oil production
Seeking to save rural Corfu from abandonment, the Dafnis family “started a small revolution” in the island’s olive oil sector. They established the Olive Fabrica company with a modern olive mill, learned about and focused on sustainable, organic production of high quality, healthy extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) from the island’s native Lianolia olive variety, and created their olive oil brand, The Governor. They named their brand after the Corfiot Count Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of an independent Greece— yes, the man in the movie. Spyros Dafnis says Kapodistrias “ensured a revival of the nation.” The Dafnis family inspired a revival of the olive oil sector of Corfu.
They inspired the olive farmers of Corfu by demonstrating the enormous potential of Corfiot olive oil. Previously, producers on the island considered their olive oil unprofitable and had “no hope for an alternative direction,” Dafnis says. “Now everybody knows it can be done, what these centenarian groves can offer.” They no longer think Spyros Dafnis is crazy. He and his family have won too many awards for high quality and health benefits, donated too much of their extra healthy high phenolic EVOO to successful clinical trials, attracted too many tourists to Corfu Olive Tours and the island’s first olive oil bar at The Olive House.
“We need a new mentality of creation,” Dafnis insists, and he is starting to see this. Now, Dafnis explains, “farmers are changing their ideas about farming and harvesting, and new farmers are joining the campaign of giving life back to Corfiot groves, because they understand we have a unique natural treasure: these 4.5 million olive trees produce an exceptional olive oil,” as well as providing 65-70% of the island’s greenery. Other olive oil producers on the island are winning awards for excellent flavor and extraordinary health benefits.
The Dafnis family inspired a revival of the olive oil sector of Corfu with their olive oil brand, The Governor, named after Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of an independent Greece. Photo: Lisa Radinovsky/ Greek Liquid Gold
Collaborating and educating, for a brighter future for Corfu’s olive oil industry
Dafnis is delighted by these changes, since he believes “we are a big community. Only if we collaborate will we take the sector higher.” Spyros and George Dafnis and their team are collaborating with nearly 300 producers who follow the same careful farming procedures. These farmers bring their Lianolia Corfu olives to the Olive Fabrica mill to make the award-winning Governor Premium EVOO. (The Governor Limited EVOO comes from the Dafnis family’s own estates of 12,000 trees.)
To inspire even more islanders to pursue the bright future of Corfu’s olive oil industry and countryside that they envision, the team at The Governor developed a program for schoolchildren. They have hosted more than 6000 students to date, emphasizing the fascinating creative aspects of olive oil production in Corfu. As Dafnis points out, “the future of olive oil is only the new generation; otherwise, everything we’re doing has an expiration date.”
To broaden the market for the olive oil of Corfu, Spyros and George Dafnis and their team reach out to tourists—more than 60,000 so far. “We need to spread the word about our vision, tell them who we are and what we’re working for. We need to turn our olive mills into small schools for these people, to initiate these visitors into the world of Greek olive oil with an experience that will be unforgettable.”
Dafnis believes this can help “forge a new reality of Greek olive oil,” because “if the experience is positive, they will be with us forever.” And these visitors should take olive oil with them when they leave the island—”take with them part of what Corfu really is.” So The Governor has organized olive oil tasting events in a duty-free shop full of extra virgin olive oil in the island’s airport.
The Governor and the past, present, and future of Corfu’s olive oil sector
In addition to reaching students and tourists in Corfu, Spyros Dafnis has been impressing conference audiences with his eloquent dynamism. At the Wine and Olive Oil in the Mediterranean conference in Ancient Olympia, after describing the revolution in Corfu olive oil production over the last decade, he mentioned that “olive trees are living monuments of nature.” He explained how he and his team introduce visitors to a thousand-year-old tree they call Mitera, or Mother. His grandmother told him this tree is “a link between us and the past, and between the present and the future.”
Dafnis’s aspirations for the future are embodied in “one of the biggest, most technologically advanced olive mills in Greece, the olive mill of the future,” which his company will open this year, as he announced at the 3rd Elia Lesvos Confest in Mytilene. The public will be invited to visit starting in 2027. This will offer a “melting pot of production and training married with gastronomy and many other activities.”
The Governor did not achieve success with olive oil production in Corfu without struggles. Reviewing the many steps his family has taken over the last decade, Dafnis cautions, “you can’t go directly from A to Z; what lies behind is very hard work.” As he adds, “the biggest virtue for a Greek farmer or any person is to adapt to the conditions, to be grounded while looking toward the sky.” He quoted the Greek poet Odysseus Elytis: “if you don’t find spring, you can make it.”
Some may consider Spyros Dafnis’s vision for the olive oil sector of his island and his country idealistic stargazing. However, in the groves, the shop, and the mill in Corfu we can see wonderfully grounded, effective results.
Originally published on Greek Liquid Gold: Authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil: greekliquidgold.com. See that site for recipes with olive oil, photos from Greece, agrotourism and food tourism suggestions, and olive oil news and information. To get that news right in your inbox, sign up for the free monthly Greek olive oil newsletter at https://greekliquidgold.com/newsletter-signup/ (and then check the box in the confirmation email).
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