Our Story
"SAVING the BEES"
Purpose in life should be following your passions. Our passions are our honey bees and olive trees!
Nikiforos, Ioannis (John) and Nick (Nikos) all left their small Greek coastal towns to pursue widely different life paths. Nikiforos, whose family have been producing olives and olive oil for four generations, became a marketing executive in busy Athens. Ioannis, many of whose family have been bee keepers for generations, earned a degree in entomology, specialising in mosquitoes. Nick left his ancestral village of Galaxidi in 1987 eventually becoming a tropical and subtropical forest expedition leader supporting conservation efforts in the tropics.
After many years of pursuing these endeavours all three independently decided to make major life changes, and all three came full circle, returning to their respective villages of Itea and Galaxidi, situated on the picturesque northern coast of the Gulf of Corinth.
Now, back home, and with a vision of creating a new life based on their families traditional work with beekeeping and olive production, Nikiforos and Ioannis set about planning to create MoKa – an interpretive and educational beekeeping and olive farm, the first and only one in Greece that anyone could visit.
They recognised that there is an ever increasing gap developing in the awareness and involvement of the younger generation of Greeks in these two ancient traditional farming practices. They were also very aware of colony collapse disorder (CCD) and other threats that are devastating bee colonies here in Greece, and worldwide. They decided to do something about it. With the addition of Nick to the MoKa team, with his background in conservation work and education, the triangle was complete.
Now they are all promoting their passion for saving the bees, and continuing the ancient legacy of olive cultivation and processing through fun, educational tours to both Greek students and visitors from all over the world.
Our Mission
Redefining Local Farming
Seemingly small efforts can achieve big results
Our Journey So Far
MoKa Products Founded
Having inherited our family tradition of bee keeping and olive oil production from our grandparents, going back many generations, we now created MoKa Products.
Founded with the goal of creating a sustainable and eco-friendly apiary and olive farm from which we could share our passion with visitors. We began preparing our new site on one of our small olive orchids, inspired by our vision for a better future.
Old, collapsed stone wall terraces were painstakingly rebuilt. Pathways were created and optimal positions chosen to place the bee hives.
In 2015, we had our first successful, small, honey harvest of top quality honey. We were thrilled to see our hard work and dedication paying off. An abundant olive harvest followed the same year. The farm was now operational and, at last, we were now in a position to open our doors to visitors and we began to offer honey bee tours. We were now the first and only visitable apiary in Greece.
First International Travel Awards
In this year we were delighted and honoured to receive our first awards from international travel organisations and companies due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews we were being given by their clients. It was also at this time that we began exporting our honey throughout Europe and to the U.S.A.
Sharing Our Message with the World
Environmentally concerned tour companies take notice! This year we started to receive our first group bookings from tour companies that recognised the importance of our message and wanted to give their guests the opportunity to experience a unique encounter with our bees, and learn about the existential threat that they, and by extension, we humans are faced with.
A Dangerous Turning Point
This year our bees faced a very similar fate to the honey bees in the USA, where they experienced a catastrophic and record breaking average death rate of 80%. Unfortunately for us, over a four month period we watched our colonies struggling against the Varroa Destructor mites and the associated viruses that they are vectors for.
The usual natural treatment we use appeared to be almost completely ineffective and, by mid November, most of our colonies had collapsed and died. Absolutely heart breaking for us as you can imagine, but of course we kept going and are beginning to rebuild, next spring we will launch a very big effort to recover completely and keep up to date on all the latest research on natural treatments to help us keep the Varroa mites under control or if we are lucky, to eliminate them completely. At least for a period of time anyway!
Growing Together
Obviously, due to the fact that we are a small bee and olive farm, we have to be very innovative and resourceful in terms of creating new products and new visitor experiences and activities in order to survive challenges like wildfires and replacing bee colonies that we have lost due mainly to the Varroa mites.
Doing this allows us to maintain our ability to keep getting our ‘Save the Bees’ and or general conservation and sustainability message out to the world. We greatly appreciate every visitor who visits us and our bees and olives. We literally could not do it without your support – thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Nikiforos Kalafatis
Co-founder
tour guide for the olive tour and the beeswax & olive oil soap workshop
Nikiforos is an olive oil producer and the owner of the farm. After many years of working in Athens as an advertising executive at big companies like McCann-Ashley workgroup, he decided to make a huge life change. Escaping from the fast paced, stressful city life he returned to his roots in order to pursue his dream of sharing his passion for bees and olives with everyone. His vision is now a reality which is helping to spread a positive environmental message both locally and internationally.
Ioannis Moraitis
Co-founder
bee tour guide
John is a PhD Agronomist, graduated from Agricultural University of Athens specialized in insects like bees and mosquitoes. He operates as a beekeeper at the same time, taking over this great job from his great-grandfather.
Science is explaining life so this is the right guy to tell you everything you need to know about this amazing insect we call bee.
Nick Bougas
tour guide for the bee tour,
the olive tour and the beeswax & olive oil soap workshop
Nick worked as a tropical and sub-tropical conservation expedition leader in the countries of Belize, C.A. and Indonesia. Now, back in his ancestral home of Greece, he is delighted to share his awareness about our bee conservation mission. Doing so allows Nick to continue his lifelong vocation of raising awareness of urgent conservation issues, such as the global plight of the honey bee, the importance of which cannot be overstated. Nick and the MoKa message are a perfect match!
Sustainable Farming Practices for a Better Future
At MoKa Products, we are committed to using sustainable farming practices to ensure the health of our bees and olive trees, and the long-term viability of our farm. From using recycled materials to inspire people and the new generation, we take every step to create a better future for our planet and our customers.
