Greece

Brief summary about Greek sericulture: Sericultural activities have a long tradition in Greece and raw cocoon production and silk processing had been familiar activities of all the Greek territory since very early periods. Production and home processing in some Greek areas had reached very high levels already around year 1750-1770. Pebrine silkworm disease entered the Greek territory around year 1860 and dramatically decreased the cocoon production of the country, something which started gradually changing after the application of the ??Pasteur?? laboratory examination method. After year 1908 Greek sericulture reached a level which is considered as its ''golden period''. Within this period cocoon production reaches very significant levels and in the same period the national silk industry develops rapidly. This situation lasted nearly up to 1940 followed after that by a dramatic decline, caused mainly by world war two, the Greek civil war, the appearance of the synthetic fibers and the crop re-structuring. Mulberry plantations gradually were replaced by new crops which provided higher incomes. In the last few years a regain tendency is being observed for the Greek sericulture mainly due to the increasing demand within the European countries for natural and biological products and the increased silk products consumption. Both silkworm rearing and mulberry cultivation, within the European Union (EU) countries such as Greece are subsidized and silk reeling and processing industry can be subsidized as well within the national development programs. These facts combined to the huge quantities of silk products which are imported explain the increasing interest which is observed among Greek farmers with a tendency to get involved or increase their cocoon production and apply modern technology. The demand for silk products in Greece and Europe appears steadily growing and is mainly covered by imports since the local production doesn?t cover it. This creates opportunities for the development of silk product processing and distribution centres which could activate the local production of silk products, give reasons for the development of the local sericulture and create connections with other countries where such activities exist. Greece, due to its geographic position and its membership in the E.U. could develop such centres being concerned in processing local and imported raw materials and distributing their and other imported silk products either locally or within the E.U. The Black and Caspian Seas Region could be a good partner to the above proposed centres since there exist all the range of the silk industry and the small silk enterprises.

Local sericulture institutions: