Maniterra - Kalamata - Greece

Maniterra is a family company, founded in 1990 in Kalamata, in Greece. It produces, selects and sells Greek olives, mainly Kalamata olives, but also other varieties as Halkidiki, Conservolia, Giant and Dried Olives in different sizes and cuts: whole, pitted, sliced in half, various mix. The company is located 10 km from Kalamata, in the southern part of the Peloponnese peninsula (an island since there is the Isthmus of Corinth canal), about three and a half hours driving from Athens. We visited Maniterra few months ago: "we have about 30 years of experience in the industry - told us Demie and Afroditi. Maniterra was among the first companies to propose the pitted olive, initially requested by the American market. Now pitted olives represent about 90% of our business." Maniterra is very careful in the selection of the olives: they used only Kalamata olives harvested by hand in the area of Sparta, working directly with farmers selecting olives at the proper caliber and size, with no intermediaries. The processing is done in the factory in Maniterrra, where they work with very little of light in order not to oxidize the olive. Maniterra does not use Soda in the extraction of the bitterness from the Kalamata Olives, they use only water, a process that requires time and patience.