Kiwifruit season in Greece might begin with high prices

In 1928, the Protofanousis family started their fruit business with a small lemon shop in Thessaloniki, Greece, and today, it is known as Protofanousi Fruits SA, one of the leading fruit suppliers in Europe. 

In his last interview, George Kallistis, Export Manager at Protofanousi Fruits, shared to Fructidor that there is already a high demand for Greek kiwifruit at the market, as the Chilean kiwifruit stock has finished early. 

Kallistis expects the same crop volume as in the last year. Even though it is too early to make predictions for prices, the Manager projects “high prices, at least, at the beginning of the season”. This year’s kiwifruit is characterized by good quality and size. 

For Proto, investment in technology is key to success, and for this reason, the company opted for a new kiwifruit sizer/sorter by Compac/Icoel. This machine consists of 12 lanes, is fully automated at all production stages and has the latest technology optical sorting hardware and software supplied by TOMRA. Being capable of packing 40 pallets per hour, Proto will be able to meet any customer demand.  

Proto has also acquired a brand new packing line by Marco UK which now awaits the upcoming table grapes season. Precise monitoring and weighing systems, highly efficient overall design will allow for Proto to pack up to 40 pallets of punnets per day while maintaining necessary quality.

While its Cherry sorter was just 4 years old, the company proceeded to 2 significant upgrades in 2019 and 2020. Last year, PROTO acquired UNITEC’s Cherry Vision 3 quality management system: a system that now has more cameras located in various angles, in order to inspect every single cherry and discard them if needed. 

According to Nikos Protofanousis, the PROTO CEO and owner, the key principles for Protofanousi Fruits SA are Quality, Quantity, Duration. The recent multi-million investments are a part of that, guaranteeing the daily goal of the company: to keep making their customers happy.