5th Annual Naxos Potato Festival To Take Place August 2014

Photo © Municipality of Naxos and Small Cyclades

The Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Naxos is organizing the 5th Annual Naxos Potato Festival on Saturday 2 August 2014.

Photo © proionta-naxou.gr

Organized in honor of the island’s potato producers, the event will take place in Agia Anna in the historic potato-producing area of Agios Arsenios.

Held at the height of the tourism season, the 5th Annual Naxos Potato Festival – one of the region’s most popular gastro-tourism events, noting a 10 percent increase in visitor attendance each year – is expecting 2,500-3,000 attendees.

At the event, chef Stelios Korres and others from the local business community will present potato-based dishes.

Entertainment in traditional island style will be provided by popular musical group Vaggelis and Michalis Konitopoulos and Stathis Koukoularis (violi) and dance groups from the neighboring villages: Kournochori, Glinado and Agios Aresenios.

“The Naxos potato serves as an ambassador of Naxos,” according to the president of the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Naxos, Dimitris Kapounis. “It is a certified product (PDO, PGI) produced and standardized on Naxos. The aromatic quality of the Naxos potato makes it ideal for a variety of dishes.”

A bit about the Potato of Naxos

Photo © Municipality of Naxos and Small Cyclades

Naxos is well-known for the quality and taste of its potatoes, which are cultivated especially in the valley of Livadi. The quantities produced in Glinado and the other villages in the valley are such that permit their export to other parts of Greece.
Cultivation of the vegetable began in 1953 with the founding of the Seed Potato Center, which made Livadi the officially designated area for the production of seedlings that would be distributed to other areas of Greece. The initiative proved such a success that the potato developed into a monoculture in the area and afforded considerable income benefits to the local population.
Naxos potatoes are readily available in shops in Glinado and widely so in the rest of Naxos and elsewhere on mainland Greece.
On Naxos potatoes have a long history. It goes back to the fertile land making Naxos – since 1950s – the official potato seed producer of Greece. Today, production is estimated at 8 million kilos per annum, a figure that can expand exponentially thanks to the modernization methods of gathering and packaging the potatoes.