The Hindu Business Line : Of cow's milk & battered cars

"Did you get to drink cow's milk when you were young," asks an official from the Ministry of Rural Industries and Food, Greece. He is seated next to me at the dinner table in a restaurant in Athens. In our conversation I'm wondering for the umpteenth time that while Italian olive oil is so easy to buy in an Indian supermarket, Greek olive oil or table olives are conspicuous by their absence, when he startles me with this comment.

"Of course I drank cow's milk; even my grandmother drank it, and I'm sure she got milk of a superior quality than I or my children did," one replies.

Responding to the irritation in the voice, he goes into a detailed explanation as towhy he raised the query in the first place. He is just back from a mammoth olive oil conference held at the headquarters of the International Olive Oil Council in Madrid. There he apparently met a former Cyprus Ambassador to India. "He was posted to India over 15 years ago and couldn't buy milk; he also had responsibility of a few other countries, and he told me that while he was travelling on work to the other countries, he was doing his grocery and buying milk for his children."

One conceded that in those days he didn't get to buy milk in cartons or bottles in the stores, and could do so perhaps in Sri Lanka, but there was no time to educate him about the white revolution brought about in India by Dr V. Kurien. But one did have the last word on the issue: "In India, we've always enjoyed the luxury of having milk delivered to our homes."

A week-long visit to the beautiful country unfolds the Greek as a very warm, friendly and hospitable people. But you also find out that they are rather inward looking, and most of the people don't have a clue about the emergence of India as a respectable economic entity.

In a small town in the Peleponesse region of Greece, the occasion is another meal and another companion, this time a member of an olive oil co-operative. After some polite conversation one nudges him to look at the huge Indian market. We are a group of seven international journalists; two from the US, two from Canada, two from Japan and one from India. Understandably enough the US market is very important for the Greek olive oil manufacturers, and they have been wooing the Japanese and the Canadians for some time. Puzzled at why there is little interest in India, all the time one feels obliged to do a small sales pitch on how the explosion in the IT and other services sectors has put huge disposable incomes in the hands of young Indians, etc.

Suddenly, my lunch companion's eyes light up and he says, "My friend was in India some time ago and he said there are many old, battered cars and they keep banging against one another."

With a deep sigh one patiently switches tack to inform him about the explosion of shining Hondas, Toyotas, Hyundais and Fords, not to mention the Mercs and BMWs, on Indian roads. "I too drive a car; and no, we don't do go-carting... at least not on the roads."

But on the other hand, there are enough people who tell you what "immense respect" they have for India. "The Indian people are very smart, very sharp. I have family members in Africa and their businesses are all managed by Indians and they do a great job," says Dimitra Aliefs, an extremely elegant Greek woman, who works as the International Market Buyer for Sorena Iberica de Aceites, part of the Alco group in Spain.

Paying a tribute to the development taking place in India, she says her company is already eyeing the Indian market for exporting olive oil. One can see that the smarter people in the industry are eager to have contact with agents or importers of olive oil.

"Can you give us a contact, please? We are very keen to send the Greek olive oil, which is highly superior to the Italian and Spanish oil." These voices from the industry were heard too at various towns in Greece.

Any takers?

(To be continued)

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in