With particular pride, as a producer of Naxos PDO Graviera, as a resident of Naxos and as a Greek, I was informed that for the second consecutive year Naxos PDO Graviera is in the top seven of the international Taste Atlas cheese evaluation list.
The product in question (Graviera Naxos PDO) is produced in Naxos by four producers.
Therefore, the presentations of EAS NAXOS on Social Media and the statements of its President in the Mass Media, according to which the above distinction was supposedly received by “Graviera Naxos PDO of EAS Naxos”, cause a painful impression. As I reminded Mr. President in writing when on 12.7.2022 the same distinction was again publicly appropriated, the Taste Atlas research concerns the Graviera Naxos PDO product in general and not of course the product of a specific company. Obviously, we would call an Italian parmesan producer in bad faith who would publicly state that his parmesan is number one on the Taste Atlas list.
My cheese creamery “PITTARA CHEESE” is the part of a double vertically integrated unit “forage production – livestock unit – cheese factory”, which processes the milk from my livestock unit only. I produce fodder on owned and leased farms under the guidance of farmers with decades of experience with huge machinery that would be the envy of many units in Europe. My livestock unit has over 500 cattle, of which 200 are milked with a production of almost 3000 tons of milk per year and is the largest livestock unit located on a Greek island.
With the help and continuous monitoring of my veterinarian brother, and the help of technology, since my animals having individual transmitters are monitored in real time by computer, I have managed today to produce more than 20% of the cow’s milk produced in Naxos which I process in my cheese creamery.
My business has received first place in Greece
- Certification for the good management and well-being of productive animals
- Certification for the non-use of genetically modified feed.
My products, whenever they have been judged in international and Greek evaluations, always occupy the first positions. Furthermore, before my graviera was on the market, Naxos graviera PDO was not even in the top thousand of the Taste Atlas list. However, I did not appear in the MKD and in the media claiming that Graviera Naxos Pittara ranked third last year and seventh this year on the Taste Atlas list, as such a thing would be on the one hand false and on the other hand a bad faith attempt to appropriate a distinction that concerns the product in general ” Graviera Naxos PDO”, which has won consumer preference thanks to the efforts of all producers.
I am forced to now publicly call on EAS Naxos and its President to restore the truth, i.e. that Graviera Naxos PDO was 7th on the Taste Atlas list and not to appropriate in the future any discrimination of the product Graviera Naxos PDO, if it does not specifically concern the product of their business.
I request all mass media that communicated the above untrue statements to make amends by exposing the reality to their TV viewers – listeners – readers.
Attachments: my e-mail from 12/07/2022 to EAS Naxos, the certifications of my business, the distinctions of my products and the Taste Atlas link that says where you can taste and buy Graviera Naxos PDO.