Producer | Hellenic Agricultural Enterprises
Our company
Hellenic Agricultural Enterprises has been inspired by our wish to promote highest quality agricultural products from Lesvos, like our extra virgin olive oils, and other parts of Greece in global markets.
We aim to introduce consumers around the world to the distinctive flavors and products that Lesvos and Greece have to offer. Our commitment is to maintain high standards of quality using choice ingredients and traditional processes, upholding our core values of high nutritional value, fair prices, and environmental sustainability.
Our logo presents the coat of arms of our family’s ancestors, depicting a dove perched upon the globe, and carrying an olive branch in its beak. Aside from its portrayal of our family heritage, we selected it to represent us because it expresses the ideal of global peace, and also symbolizes the spiritual and material significance of the olive as nourishment for the mind and body that transcends cultures throughout the world.
It is displayed on most of our brands:
ACAIA for our premium extra virgin olive oils and olive-based products
Aeolian Olive for more high quality olive oils
L&KO Organic extra virgin olive oil in Japan
Hebe for all-natural Greek fruit preserves (spoon sweets)
Ceraon for wines
About Lesvos
Lesvos is Greece’s third largest island, located in the northern Aegean. In addition to its abundance of olive trees, it has a wealth of orchards, aromatic herbs and other flora, making it a botanical paradise. It is not without reason that the Ottomans referred to it as “the garden of the Aegean”.
This is our family’s home and where the history of our company begins, with the production of premium extra virgin olive oil under the brand ACAIA to take advantage of the unique organoleptic qualities of the native Kolovi olive variety.
Lesvos has a long history of olive oil production. Excavations have brought to light a Bronze Age olive press dated 2800 - 2000 BC. Wide expanses of olive groves in terraced hills cover nearly 30% of the island, in the eastern and southern parts, and nearly 80% of the island’s arable land. In fact, with over eleven million trees and a population of about 90,000 people, Lesvos has by far the largest number of olive trees per capita in the world. Many of the trees are hundreds of years old, as indicated by their thick and gnarled trunks. Olive tree cultivation and olive oil production are therefore one of the most important economic activities in Lesvos.
Lesvos is also noted for its natural beauty, its plentiful sunshine, its vibrant ecosystems that include not only flora but also fauna, as well as its highly varied landscape, ranging from the luscious green of the east and south to the wild, volcanic west, with a petrified forest that is one of the largest in the world.
The Kolovi olive variety
The Kolovi variety, also known as Valanolia and Mytilinia (var. pyiriformis) is indigenous to Lesvos, and is found mainly on Lesvos. It is a lesser-known variety throughout the world and even within Greece.
The Kolovi olive tree grows largely on hilly terrain rich in slate, up to an altitude of just under 2000 feet (600 meters). It is well adapted to Lesvos’ limited rainfall, and does not need much water. This results in the formation of a wide root system that enables the transfer of important nutrients from the soil to the olive fruit.
Many of the trees have little or no road access, and can be reached only by donkey or on foot. The olives are therefore harvested by hand, aided by portable mechanical pickers. The use of very limited amounts of fertilizers and pesticides results in olives that are more natural, healthier and more nutritious
Find more information on Producer's website
