🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Greeks

Greeks are the main population of Greece, a country on the south of the Balkan Peninsula and on many Mediterranean islands, which had 10.37 million inhabitants on 1 January 2025. ⁷ Their oldest rural tradition is the olive: it has been grown here for more than four thousand years. ¹

Olive oil first. According to the International Olive Council, Greece produces about 300,000 tonnes of olive oil a year, up to 70% of it extra virgin, and eats about 16 kg per inhabitant, the most in the world. ¹ The Peloponnese gives 37% of the oil, Crete 30% and the Ionian Islands 12%; the main oil cultivar is Koroneiki, and Kalamata table olives come from the Kalamon cultivar. Finds at Knossos, Mycenae and Pylos show oil in food, trade and ritual.

Sheep, goats and seasonal routes. Much of the country is hilly with poor but varied pastures, which suits sheep and goats far better than dairy cows. ⁸ The EU describes small, hardy native breeds kept by extensive grazing and transhumance, fed on a very varied flora. ² Since 2023 Greece shares the UNESCO heritage element Transhumance, the seasonal droving of flocks between lowland and mountain pastures. ⁶

Feta, the everyday cheese. Genuine feta is a white brined cheese from sheep's milk or a mix with up to 30% goat's milk, ripened for at least two months. ³ Greek output grew from 25,000 tonnes in 1931 to about 115,000 tonnes a year in the early 2000s, and a Greek ate about 10.5 kg of feta out of 14 kg of cheese a year. ²

The fight for the name. Denmark, Germany and France took the 1996 registration of feta to the EU Court of Justice, which partly annulled it in 1999. ² In 2002 the Commission registered the name again as a non-generic Greek designation, noting that Greece accounted for about 73% of feta eaten in the EU.

Wine. Vines grow on about 93,000 hectares, and in 2025, after two very small harvests, Greece made about 1.6 million hectolitres of wine. ⁴ Wine, bread and olive oil form the core of the shared Mediterranean way of eating that UNESCO lists as heritage. ⁵

Mastic of Chios. On the island of Chios families grow mastic, an aromatic resin of the shrub Pistacia lentiscus; UNESCO added this know-how to its heritage list in 2014. ⁹ Men prune the shrubs in winter, women clean the ground from mid-June, and from July cuts in the bark release the resin tears, which are washed and stored in wooden boxes.

Greeks and feta in the UK. Searches often compare Greeks with Romans or ask how Greeks live; on the table the gap is easier to measure. In the EU data behind the 2002 feta decision, a person in the UK, Ireland, France or Sweden ate between 0.04 and 0.15 kg of feta a year, while a Greek ate 10.5 kg, about seventy times more. ² Greeks also call their country Hellas and themselves Hellenes: the state is the Hellenic Republic, and EU statistics code it EL. ¹¹¹⁰

Why it matters to you. The Mediterranean diet, which includes Greek cooking built on olive oil, has been on the UNESCO heritage list since 2013. ⁵ In the EU, feta must be Greek and made from sheep's milk or with some goat's milk, so a cow's-milk white cheese cannot use the name. ³ For olive oil, the Greek share of extra virgin is high, so a Greek label is a good starting point. ¹