Joseph Mertyris - Pomegranate Ermioni

Ο Joseph the Martyr being a farmer since he was a child and having studied accounting - programming, since 1980 - he is engaged in trade and in recent years with his packaging plant in his area of the municipality of Ermionida. Its main production is Ermioni pomegranate.

In the area of ​​Ermionida there is a variety of pomegranate with red fruits, intense natural sweetness and soft, fluffy seeds and a high percentage of juice per fruit, the pomegranate of Hermione, until a few years ago you only found it there. The cultivated areas of the area are around 600 acres, the produced quantities are 1000 tons, while the producers of Ermioni pomegranate do not exceed 100.

Evidence places the cultivation of pomegranate since 1925 while since 2013 has been submitted to the Ministry of Rural Development, a dossier request for to register "Pomegranate Ermioni" as a PDO product.

Joseph Mertyris is one of the most important pomegranate packers of Ermioni and from our discussion we learned important things:

"In recent years, it is true that pomegranate cultivation has been successfully expanded in many parts of the country - in northern Greece, for example in Kilkis, large areas have been planted with pomegranates - and thus the percentage of Argolida and Ermionida in the total Greek pomegranate production. decreases. But the demand in turn is constantly growing.

There is a lot of room for improvement when you add value to the product. Pomegranate from what you know is difficult to clean. If the consumer buys it ready for consumption, it will make it much easier. Knowing the rhythms of life in Athens, I thought that we should offer the pomegranate ready for consumption, cleaned grain - grain. A few years ago we started very timidly with a pilot program and sent it to some big supermarkets Peeled Hermione pomegranate. I have to admit that the acceptance of the people exceeded our expectations. Today we have procured a machine that cleans the pomegranate and in the process we standardize the pomegranate so that the product we give is completely tested and without preservatives. We preferred to have a short product life rather than enriching it with preservatives. The same goes for our pomegranate juices. "

In the packaging of Joseph depending on the season you will see packed citrus fruits (a beautiful orange grove surrounds the unit), vegetables and even artichokes!