By Lorrie Baumann

Fairway Market, which operates stores in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, has partnered with Olive Roots on a program that will give its customers the chance to discover a variety of authentic foods from small Greek and Cypriot producers. “I am looking forward to our Greece country program to see the success of the new brands we selected,” said Chris Garzino, Fairway Market’s Director of Specialty. “Many of the brands will be new to the U.S. and I believe they will give our customer a greater feel into the culture of the country.”

Olive Roots is a boutique specialty food exporter that specializes in streamlining the process of bringing more Greek food products into the U.S. “Lots of these products are really hard to find,” said Olive Roots Founder Katerina Barka. “You’d have to travel and get lost on your way to find the village – it’s impossible to find them anywhere.”

Barka launched her company at the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show after noticing that the Americans she knew were appreciative of the Greek products she was sharing with them, but neither they nor she could find them in American stores. When she approached Fairway Market, the buyers’ first response was a little quizzical, since she was making the kind of inquiry on behalf of Greek food and food producers that they’d ordinarily expect to hear from a country’s trade mission. “They looked at us like, ‘Who are you?’” Barka said. But they listened to her proposal and eventually agreed that they’d go to Greece and let Barka introduce them to artisanal food producers from Greece and Cyprus. “They had meetings with all of them,” Barka said. “We presented them with the best of the best companies.”
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Ultimately, Fairway agreed to provide shelf space for products from 18 of those companies for a six-month trial period. “Those that do well will stay here indefinitely, like any other brand,” Barka said. Fairway will also kick off the trial with a three-week promotion that includes publicity and in-store demonstrations and sampling events. “As part of the promo campaign, we will run a contest,” Barka said. The contest will offer participating shoppers the chance to win one of two culinary-focused trips, one to Greece and one to Cyprus. The promotional campaign will kick off with a September 26 breakfast at Fairway’s Red Hook store and continue for the following three weeks through October 17.

The products selected by Fairway for its shelves include estate olive oils, natural jams and juices, baking mixes, artisan cheeses, spiced sea salts, raw honey and honey spreads and traditional soup mixes, cookies and sesame spreads. “Most of the products will make their debut in the U.S. market and are products that, until now, one could only find if they traveled to Greece and a local gave them foods from their pantry,” Barka said.

Barka is optimistic that Fairway’s shoppers will enjoy the opportunity that Fairway is presenting. She points out that Americans are interested in the Mediterranean diet and that many are already familiar with Greek cuisine. Greek-Americans have done a good job of running festivals spotlighting Greek cuisine across the U.S., so there are Americans everywhere who are potential customers for the products they’d need to duplicate aspects of that cuisine for their own tables, she said. “We are looking into opening up more stores for these kind of products,” she said. “Americans love Greek food – there’s not a lot of real Greek food here. We will see more…. Eventually, we’d like to have a lot of these products available.”