The idea was born a few years ago. Both born and raised in the preeminent fishing village of Alonissos, we learned to be guided by the sea.
Our many years of experience in the field of fish, since our main occupation was the wholesale throughout Greece and the retail sale of our island’s catch, gave us the idea to move on to something more substantial. I remember the time when the tuna fishing started. The housewives did not have time to close the quantities they wanted to make the tuna in their own jar for their kitchen but also to offer it as a gift to acquaintances and friends who visited our island.
However, the requirements of our time have changed and each place has the need to highlight the means it has in order to take a prominent place on the map. The offer of the women’s cooperative also played an important role, but unfortunately it limited its sale in the local market. Ensuring the quality of the products that is now required gave us the impetus to create a modern laboratory for the standardization of our tone. In this way it could become an export product and provide us and our country with the required profit.
So in 2007, my husband and I, partners in life until now but also professionally, started the implementation of our plan with the creation of the joint venture company Anagnostou Giorgos & Kalogianni Amalia O.E. in Alonissos. At the end of the year, our project was completed and I would say with a lot of financial difficulties since the economic crisis had started for our country. Our inclusion in funding from the European Union through the NSRF made things a little easier.
This is how we founded our company and until now we rely on the production of the two most exquisite types of tuna, the red (tuna) and the white (tuna). The production process takes place in the winter months, which is also the tuna fishing season. The staff is around ten people and the main recruitment criterion is that they are residents of Alonissos. Our duty is to offer consumers an unadulterated gourmet delight in various flavors. We combine the refined taste with the supplementation of all the trace elements and vitamins that are necessary in our diet for the proper development of our organism. The main advantage of Alelma products is the absence of mercury, so it can be safely consumed by young children and pregnant women.
The Greek diet contains a rich range of products. The rich soil of our country offers products that we must adopt on our daily table if we want to have a correct course in our development and avoid basic health problems, without forgetting the importance of using the olive oil of our country. Healthy eating is now a necessity with all that entails. The attempt made to impose fast, ready-made food of poor quality on us has become inactive with the trend that has been created in recent years for Greek products. The Greek must enter dynamically into production and take advantage of the offer of the Greek land and sea. With the right care of the state, all producers will be helped to promote our products outside our borders. In this way we will not only enjoy the benefits of a balanced diet, but we will have the possibility to overcome the problems of the economic crisis and for our country to take its rightful place in the world.
The company ALELMA, whose name was inspired by the initials of our three children’s names and we hope to unite them in the rest of their lives, has so far managed to spread its products to every corner of Greece, overcoming the problems that arise from our geographical position not having easy access to solid Greece, with the result that the cost of expenses for our company increases.
Of course, we are not limited to the domestic market, we have put a lot of effort into expanding into the countries of Europe. We slowly started collaborations with England, Belgium, Germany, Romania, our neighbor Cyprus and we have aimed to spread beyond Europe. In this way we achieve our upward trajectory and try to improve and enrich our product range so as to make the sustainability of the company easier. By trying to have a balanced relationship between price and quality, we have the result of addressing a small consumer audience, since the standard of living of the average Greek is low. It is obvious that if we had started a few years ago things would have been much easier. Certainly there are small businesses that try to cover some local markets, but the need that exists so as to ensure the quality of the products, and to protect the consumer
