Salad Revenues Are Dressing for Greek Wounds
by Chip Butler
Relief has come for Greek balance sheets, and it has nothing to do with budget cuts: the Western world has gone gaga over Greek salad. Eight years after smash hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding boosted international sales of Greek olives and honey, a sudden uptick in feta sales has the country looking up and its cheese producers working around the clock.
Feta is the star ingredient of Greek salad (horiatiki), an amalgam that includes tomato, cucumber, red onion, kalamata olives and green pepper. Abroad, the dish is especially popular in the United States, where lettuce is usually added, but has found a place on menus across the world: as Bauernsalat in Germany, as salade à la Grecque in France, as görög saláta in Hungary, and as ensalada griega in Spain. Each of these countries has reported feta sales increases of at least 12% across the last six months—almost exactly the level of Greek debt in the 2009 budget cycle.
Indeed, these times have not been kind to Greek pocketbooks. The European Union’s Maastricht rules forbid any level of debt exceeding three percent of national gross domestic product (GDP), but Greece has routinely doubled this limit. Now, despite having sought the help of Goldman Sachs to restructure and hide its debt, Greece is scandalously in arrears. Public debt of 12.7% of GDP has pushed the country to the edge of insolvency, with few international investors willing to take the plunge into Greek securities. A Kentucky boy made headlines in mid-January by using funds from his hot chocolate stand to buy an undisclosed amount of Greek bonds. He recognized the risk but claimed he was “at the right age for such a dicey investment.”
Now greater help has come to the birthplace of Achilles with the Caucasian world’s growing appetite for Greek salad. What exactly has created this feta frenzy is unclear. Some attribute the rise to improved awareness of feta’s health benefits—it is rich in calcium, riboflavin, and vitamin B12—while others speak of a clandestine Feta Federation. Rumors coming out of Athens have fingered Greek-American actress Olympia Dukakis, an Oscar-winner and stage veteran, as being responsible for its founding. She could not immediately be reached for comment.
Around the world Greeks have gotten wind about this chance to help their homeland and have banded together. Katina Chiklis, born in Corinth and currently a resident of Dublin, Ireland, expressed excitement about being able to give back to the country that gave her so much.
“When I heard about the suffering of my people, I cried because I was so far away and could do nothing,” said Chiklis. “Then I spoke with my friends Dasha and Xanthus and we formed an action plan. Every week we go to all the supermarkets in Dublin buying up feta and demanding that the stores increase their stock.”
With or without the Feta Federation, back in the Aegean Greek officials are thrilled with this timely surge in exports. Said Finance Minister George Papakonstantinou upon reading the numbers, “Καιρ? ?χω να σε δω!”
With the resulting infusion of tax receipts, the government hopes to revive several stagnant public works projects in Athens. The Acropolis has been overrun of late by feral dogs, and though the government has tagged them, it has lacked the funds for removal. But with the help of the so-called Greek Salad Fund they will be able to quickly and efficiently round up these dogs and deliver them pre-butchered to needy families around the capital. Their Minister of the Interior, Prokopis Pavlopoulos called the situation a “win-win.”◊