An appetizer featured at the Greek food restaurant Argo in Beijing. Ye Jun / China Daily

Yogurt, oil and other goods from Greece are gaining ground

To many Chinese, the best way to someone's heart is through their stomach - a sentiment not lost on Li Xin and her business partner Vangelis Giannakaros.

It has been five years since they opened their Greek restaurant, Argo, in a popular part of Beijing, and they say the appetite for authentic food and wine from the southern European country is growing.

Tucked neatly into a traditional Chinese hutong courtyard, right across the road from the famous Yonghegong Lama Temple in the capital, Argo's menu boasts all the great Greek favorites such as lentil soup, gemista, moussaka and feta cheese.

Beijinger Li says business has been good, helped in no small part by the crowds of tourists and visitors who flock to the popular temple.

But still, opening a Greek restaurant carried considerably more risk than opening a local one.

"Yes, it would have been a lot easier if it were Chinese food," admits the 48-year-old.

A specialized Greek food restaurant in Beijing is still something of a novelty. The number of her regular clientele is still small, she says, compared with that of other, more recognized Western styles such as French and Italian. It has taken a bit longer than expected to build up a steady flow of customers, and make a profit.

"Since we opened, the cost of ingredients such as meat and oil has not stopped rising," she says, "so it has been hard. But we have shown a lot of perseverance and determination to survive."

One especially pleasing aspect, she adds, has been the strong Chinese support for the food, as more local people travel abroad to Greece and other parts of Europe.

"They are developing a wider vision and better understanding of different cultures and are starting to appreciate Greek cuisine as offering tasty as well as healthy food," she says.

Aris Argiriou, the managing director of the Beijing office of Kondor Asia, meanwhile, also uses the word "hard" when he talks about selling Greek products.

As a distributor of various Greek foods and drinks, the company is a key importer of Greek wine, and participated in several wine tastings last year to tempt local palates away from the more traditional French or Italian vintages.

"Sales of Greek wine are showing early promise here, but it needs more time," he says.

However, the taste for Greek yogurt, pasta, imported water and olive oil has been much stronger, says the importer who is originally from the Greek capital Athens, and who has been in Beijing four years.

Yogurt is one of Greece's most famous products, and Argiriou says he sold a great number of his national yogurts last year; but his best-sellers are Udor mineral water and Melissa pasta, both Greek products.

Other traders in Beijing also report strong sales of Udor.

Gao Lei, for instance, says he registered his own company in May last year just to sell it, and after importing 20 shipping containers of Udor last year he has already managed to move 240 containers this year, which he says is helping to make it the country's second-best selling mineral water, after France's Evian.

Meanwhile, Wang Liyuan, the manager of Beijing Yfteda International Trade Co Ltd, is collaborating with Argiriou's Kondor on the sale of Orfeas, a top Greek olive oil.

Wang's company, established a year ago, has imported three containers of Orfeas in the past year, a total of 60,000 bottles.

"We have attended four expos in the first half of the year solely to promote the oil," she says of the product, which like many other Greek olive oils, is rich in purity and aroma.

Wang says when it comes to oil, Chinese customers often consider price more than quality, but she says her Greek olive oil has strong health benefits, which more customers are starting to appreciate.

"Chinese people's awareness of health is rising, especially among pregnant woman and children, and more are accepting Greek olive oil because of its health and safety qualities."

According to Emmanuel Stantzos, the minister for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the embassy of Greece in Beijing, his country is now exporting a great variety of produce to China.

In addition to the Greek staples of wine, olive oil and yogurt, there is kiwi fruit, pasta, cheese, snacks and confectionary.

"The Chinese are becoming more and more aware of Greek products, and their quality," he says.

Although Greek wine sales have taken a while to sparkle in Beijing, further south they have really taken off, says Chen Yong, the secretary-general of the wine sector for the Guangdong Alcoholic Drinks Association.

"Greek wine has unique characteristics, and can be a good complementary product to the wines traditionally imported to China," says Chen, who has been focusing recently on the promotion of Greek wine across the southern Chinese province.

"As an ancient wine producing country, Greece has unique terrain. There are more than 200 indigenous grape varieties grown in its Mediterranean climate and the rocky, clay-based, volcanic soil helps to produce wines with high acidity, full body and a complex structure, as well great mineral flavor."

Guangdong is considered one of China's most important wine markets, with many important varieties coming in from adjacent Hong Kong, the host city of the biennial international wine expo, Vinexpo.

According to Chen, two organizations in Guangdong are strongly linked to the Greek wine industry, the Greek Agricultural Product Promotion Center, and the Greek Wine League.

"But very few people deal only in Greek wine. It is considered a complementary product," she adds.

Before 2008 there were very few dealers importing Greek wine, but since then the numbers "have grown rapidly", and she now estimates that last year the province imported more than 100 container loads.

Zhang Yongbin, whose company distributes Greek wine in Shanghai, is even more optimistic about its prospects.

The general manager of Shanghai Meditela Commerce & Trade Company Ltd says its imports of Greek wine have increased from several pallets in 2011, to 3-4 containers in the past year, or 70,000 bottles, and he expects to import "many more" in the future.

"Although it is a relatively small group of people who drink Greek wine, they understand it has a profound history, as arguably the ancestor of all wines," Zhang says.

"Many consumers, after they drink a lot of wine from the better-known wine producing countries, then like to start to discover more unique wines, such as those from Greece.

"In recent years, Greece has attached more and more importance to the promotion of wine in the Chinese market.

"I'm encouraged by the fact that there is much greater acceptance and consumption of Greek wine in North America, too. That trend has really taken off in the past three to five years," Zhang says.

"And we hope to learn from that, in terms of our marketing here."

The Shanghai importer also says alongside wine, olive oil imports have seen healthy rises, "which shows high-quality products have a bright future" in China.

"People tend to drink wines they are more familiar with. French wines have been here for more than 30 years, so it will be a gradual process for Chinese people to fully recognize new indigenous wines from Greece."

Zhang says although the quality of French wine is sill considered the best, its percentage of the Chinese market has dropped, because the market has become bigger and now there is growing competition from many other wine-producing countries.

"But as long as we work together to help Chinese consumers learn about Greek wine, its popularity will grow."

yejun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 06/20/2014 page26)