• Our History

HISTORY ASTIR

ASTIR products have been on the market for 90 years. The company was founded by the Vraca family in 1928, with the processing and standardization of Kalamata table olives.

The Drakopoulos family, continuing the tradition as successor, with respect to the Messinian land and its history, brings to your table products of excellent quality and high nutritional value. All the company’s goods are 100% natural without preservatives and no artificial processing.

OUR HISTORY

The headquarters of the operation is located in Ellinoekklissia Messinias, a wider area of Ancient Messini-Ithomi in the southwestern tip of mainland Greece. A region not only famous for its ancient history, but also because of its climate and soil, famous all over the world for the production of agricultural products of rich nutritional value.

Our products, apart from the domestic market, travel to many foreign countries.

ANCIENT HISTORY

Ancient Messini-Ithomi

A region famous not only for its history, but also for the cultivation and production of high quality and tasty products. The wider area was characterized as “Makaria Land” by Pausanias.

Archaeological excavations that are being carried out at a rapid pace, reveal the great economic and cultural development of the area during the ancient times. Archaeological evidence also shows us that the eating habits of the Messenians were directly and inextricably linked to the olive tree and olive oil. A key element in many of their recipes was the fig, which could be easily preserved as dried.

Nowadays, the archaeological site of Messina is an attraction for thousands of visitors. You can follow their example and discover a tourist paradise of sea, mountain and sun. The natural products of the area will leave you with a sweet taste and memory. Enjoy!

Olive tree

The precious and beloved tree of the ancient Greeks. For millennia, it has been the tree of the Mediterranean region. The olive tree coexists with the peoples of the Mediterranean, it has become part of their everyday life and habits. Having transcended the boundaries of the landscape, it has left its traces in all the cultures that have developed on its coast. Olive oil, a gift of nature, the golden liquid according to Homer, the key word for the development and prosperity of its peoples.

Recent archaeological research in the Cyclades, the heart of the Aegean Sea, has brought to light fossilized olive leaves, which according to modern dating methods appear to be 50-60,000 years old.

An unsurpassed source of life, the olive tree is present in the texts of ancient and modern poets and writers. Without the olive tree the Greek landscape would be poorer and Greek artists and poets would have lost a unique source of inspiration.

Greek mythology

Greek mythology mentions the olive tree as a gift from the goddess Athena, when there was a competition between her and the god Poseidon to see which of the two would name the ancient city of Athens. According to mythology, Poseidon struck the sacred rock of the Acropolis with his trident and immediately a wave of salt water sprang up, which was later called the “Erechthean Sea”. When Athens struck the sacred rock with her staff, an olive tree full of fruit sprang up. The ancient Athenians considered the gift of Athena as a promise of glory and prosperity for the city and chose it.