Cooperative Profile
Labor and love of the members of the Agricultural Beekeeping Cooperative of Nikiti in Chalkidiki underlies the success of the product ‘Honey SITHON”. The Cooperative, one of the largest in Europe, was established in 1952. The rare flora, bees can visit in the area, combined with the suitable climate constitutes one of the main reasons why honey Sithon is among the best honeys in Greece and Europe. The other reasons are: up-to-date infrastructure, high-level of bee-keeping skills, great love and tradition in honey. In the mid 80’s , the Cooperative took a step forward by building its own packaging plant. In 1987, the standardization of honey started, ushering in a new age!
A honey-like story continues…
The rest of our sweet story is relatively anticipated…In the following years, the Cooperative has been developed through investments in technology, expertise and selected human resources. It soon became one of the biggest and most sophisticated apicultural cooperatives in Europe. In the early 90’s, it was one of the first cooperatives to enter computerization in the organization of work. Moreover, it created its own laboratory for honey quality control, aiming at certified quality. Honey is checked for its quality in the laboratory for quality control they possess in collaboration with the Aristotle University Of Thessaloniki, Institute of Greek Apiculture and two of the top European laboratories for honey quality control APPLICA and QSI.
The land of milk and … honey!
Nowadays, more than 70,000 swarm of bees and 140 apiarists work for your honey! Each one of the apiarists has large colonies- from 500 to 1600 beehives- and has devoted his/her life to honey production. Professional apiarists, committed to honey production, transfer the beehives anywhere throughout Greece, following the flower streets. Formerly, the transportation of beehives was taken place only in Chalkidiki. At the present time, the apicultural year starts from Peloponnesus or Central Greece in November and finishes in Macedonia in spring. Macedonia is the place where polyfloral honey is produced from June to August. The cooperative, with its 4000 square meters of installations, produces a wide range of different types of honey, mostly polyfloral and pine honey, which exceeds 1000 tones and accounts for about 12-14% of the total Greek honey production!