July 7, 2011
The olive is Greece's leading export and is central to the country's national identity. But olive prices are plummeting amid the crisis and farmers are struggling to stay afloat. SPIEGEL ONLINE visited a farmer on the brink.
If you ask Athens residents about their country's economic woes, many will say that if all else fails and the country goes bankrupt, at least they can still go and work as a farmer.
They wouldn't say that if they had met Georgios Nikolaou.
With his full beard and chiselled features, Nikolaou, a farmer from the town of Stylida northwest of Athens, looks like a mixture of Charlton Heston and Santa Claus. He wanders through his olive grove as if it were paradise on Earth. He touches the trees, reaches for the thin branches and praises the "healthy and delicious" olives, describing them as the perfect fruit. Then Nikolaou sighs deeply and begins to tell his story.
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