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Introduction
Olive oil is claimed to be beneficial for health, as it is rich in vitamin E and it does not contain preservatives it is widely used in cooking worldwide. As [6] Duff (1998), mentions the preference for olive oil is due to health reasons, because as it was found, the replacement of saturated fats by olive oil results in a lowering of the rate of heart disease.
Olive oil is one of the most important products of the Mediterranean diet and a very important element of the Greek civilization and culture. For centuries it is used in various products such as soap and cosmetics ([9] Giakoumaki et al. , 1999) and for the storage of food products such as vegetables and fish. In addition, the Greek Orthodox church uses olive oil in baptism. In the ancient years it was used in medicine ([21] Papaioannou, 1978) and in the Olympic Games, they placed on the heads of the winners leaves of olive tree, because they had a great respect for "Kotinos" (the ancient name of the olive tree).
The objective of this study is to examine the issues related to the production of olive oil and the marketing practices implemented by "Minerva S.A.", a major player in the Greek olive oil market. Thus, the company's target market and competition are analyzed, a SWOT analysis is performed and the marketing mix is presented. The marketing practices implemented by the company are compared with those employed by other companies in the international market.
Literature review
The olive oil market
The major producer of olive oil in the world is the European Union (EU), and it produces the 80 per cent and consumes the 70 per cent of the total olive oil world production ([7] European Commission, 2007). Italy and Spain are the major producers and they can influence the prices of olive oil, for example in 2005, dry weather in South Spain resulted in the reduction of production and the consequent increase in price. On the contrary in 2006, there was a lot of rain, production increased and prices declined ([17] Minerva, 2006).
Greece has the third place in the world production after Spain and Italy ([25] Sandalidou and Baourakis, 2002), and it produces about 300,000-400,000 tons...