Students answer call to save Crete’s olive harvest

After struggling to find harvest workers, retired National Technical University of Athens professor Nikos Stavrakakis has invited students to work in olive groves for the next three months. Inspired by similar initiatives in the Netherlands, Stavrakakis hopes to both fill a labor gap and provide students with an income.

More than 40 people, half of them students, have already expressed an interest in working.

Stavrakakis is now president of the Natura Cretica Organization of Organic Olive Oil and Table Olive Producers, which oversees 60,000 olive trees on Crete. He offers workers 50 euros a day plus additional compensation. Preference is given to local students rather than foreign labor. 

"If the experiment succeeds, we could create a reliable team for future work," Stavrakakis said. This year's olive harvest is expected to be strong, and Greece may produce 250...