Andreas is a young beekeeper who operates on the island of Psara. Through his participation in the agri-food acceleration program of the "New Agriculture New Generation"organization he has managed to start his own cottage industry, producing and commercializing two traditional honey by-products found in Psara, the honey molasses and the melokourkouta.
Coming from Psara, Chios, although he was born and raised in Athens, Andreas proudly states that “I truly love bees. I think this love was recorded in my DNA. As it is to almost all the inhabitants of Psara, it is part of our tradition ". So, he may have studied Economics at the University of Piraeus, but finally about 10 years ago he returned to his place and decided to get involved in beekeeping.
Since 2015, Andreas has been exclusively engaged in beekeeping, building his own unit on the island of Psara, under the name "Melissokipi". The honey he produces, which has even been awarded with the Great Taste Award, is purely thyme following the traditional method of regular beekeeping and thus producing a variety of honey that is particularly aromatic and pure.
His goal, however, apart from the production of high-quality honey, has always been the creation of his own home-made business or cottage industry, through which he will be able to utilize the various honey by-products he produces, which until today remained unexploited. "They honey molasses, called “Petimezi” comes from the last honey of the vintage, which although has no commercial value, through a process of concentration and transformation produces petimezi with various uses but also with a long life," explains Andreas while he adds "melokourkouta on the other hand, the second product I produce, is a sweet similar to mustard flour produced from water, flour, honey and nuts. It can be consumed either immediately within a few days or dried and packaged with a long shelf life ".
Wanting to carry out his vision for the creation of his own cottage industry, Andreas discovered the organization "New Agriculture New Generation" and seeing its actions decided to fill out his application for participation in the acceleration program "Agroanelixis", where he was finally selected among the 15 participants.
"Creating a cottage industry was in my mind for at least 2 years but I had to find someone or something to motivate me to take the big step and start the journey. This is exactly what the agri-food accelerator ‘Agroanelixis’ did" says Andreas, adding that "through the training process I developed a lot of my initial ideas and I was able to get in touch with the reality of the market and the agri-food industry. The whole experience was fantastic! "
In collaboration with the support and guidance team of “New Agriculture New Generation”, Andreas has started shaping the space of his new cottage industry, while at the same time, through the funding he will receive from his participation in the acceleration program "Agroanelixis" he will be able to acquire all the necessary machinery needed, such as those for the processing or packaging of his products.
In fact, from October 2021 it seems that the production of traditional honey products will begin and in the coming months, they will be ready to be introduced both in the local market of Psara and in selected delicatessens throughout the country, which have already express interest and wish to include them on their shelves.
"Our goal is to revive the traditional products of our place", says Andreas. But apart from that, it seems that he sets other long-term goals, such as being able to make the apiary and his cottage industry accessible to visitors in the next year. As he characteristically states, "All processes found in beekeeping have a certain magic in them. They offer unique experiences and visitors have to be able to take a glimpse on that”.
