It is in the summer of 2007, when the story of this company begins. Seperated by a gap of a few decades, the family’s business acumen is much older. Times and influences may differ, but the love is equally shared.
It is in the summer of 2007, when the story of this company begins. Seperated by a gap of a few decades, the family’s business acumen is much older. Times and influences may differ, but the love is equally shared.
What did inspire us? It was the love of the land, our village’s passion for agriculture and a three-generation experience. We created a contemporary unit that serves the standardization and packing of products either grown by ourselves or by a carefully selected team of cooperators.
With its registered offices located in the district of Basel, Heraclion, and under the label ‘’Minoan Fruits’’ our company has an active role in the management of agriculture products since the summer of 2007.
Table grapes are the unit’s main product. The last three generations of our family have been deeply engaged in the handling procedures of this fruit. Longing for this tradition to survive, a contemporary factory unit has been founded. The aim was not only to pack and standardize our own fruit production, but fruit and vegetables in general.
The company is founded and owned by Mr. Nikos Giannidakis, who took advatage of his long experience in the production and marketing of table grapes to take personal care of how ‘’Minoan Fruits’’ should be planned and organized.
The plant is privately-owned and its construction is traced back to the summer of 2004. Three years later it was fully equipped and ready to operate. The running started and a new page for the area and the handling of its agriculture products was turned.
Our privately-owned plant has an extense of 2000 sq.m within a 10000m2 vineyard. Consisting of administrative, refrigirating and store rooms can achieve the best possible maintenance for the products the company handles.
More precisely on the equipment, there are processing lines, where the fresh product that has been harvested undergoes sorting and is processed. Special storage tanks for the strictly selected extra virgin oil (regular and organic type/PDO) to be kept and an automatic bottling machine that serves the standardization of olive oil are included.
Most of the time, the products that we handle are the crop of our own vineyards. We have also created a team of selected growers and producers with whom we cooperate. Minoan Fruits’ cooperators are certified with GLOBAL GAP Version 4 Option 2.
List of the grape varieties cultivated in our vineyards: Extra Thomson, Thompson, Sultana White, Red and Black, Razaki White, Red and Black, Superior Seedless White and Red (MINOAN), Red Globe and Calmeria. Our cooperators provide us with the same grape varieties.
We offer various options for the table grape packaging: in plastic bags and clamshells (either open or closed/weight: 1 or 2 kilos), in carton (weight: 2, 5 or 10 kilos) or bulk (weight: 7 kilos). The choice is a matter of the customer’s preferrence.
Before the beginning of the harvest, we also collect fresh vine leaves from selected vineyards with no chemical intervntion. After the gathering we pack them in carton or flow pack. The Superior variety marks the start of the season of the harvest in July. The harvest finds its end in November.
The standardization of our products is followed by their distribution in the home and European market.
Certifications
Minoan Fruits has been certified by TÜV with the ISO 22000:2005 (TÜV CERT EN ISO 22000) and the IFS FOOD HELLAS. All the food safety management systems that our unit applies during packaging and standardizing comply with the above-mentioned models.
All our cooperators have been also certified by TÜV HELLAS with GLOBALGAP Control Points and Compliance Criteria (CPCC), Intergrated Farm Assurance, Version 4.0, Option 2 - Producer Group. Except for our main product (table grape), the team embraces a wide range of products. Some of them are raisins (variety: Sultana), figs, melons, pomegranates, watermelons and peppers, all of excellent quality. Their distribution is linked to the domestic and European market.