BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On this celebration of Greek Independence Day, we reflect on the common bonds of history and heritage that connect the United States and Greece. Our nations share cultural, economic, and defense interests, but the foundation of our abiding friendship is our unwavering commitment to liberty and our shared love of democratic institutions.
As the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, Greece has a rich and glorious heritage, resplendent in its influential contributions to literature, philosophy, and science. The ancient Greeks fostered the timeless ideal of human liberty, which inspired our Nation’s Founders as they drafted our Constitution and established our Republic. The legacy of ancient Greece carries on today, as liberty continues to serve as a beacon of hope to all who long for a better life.
It was an honor to welcome Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to the White House last year. His visit underscored the importance of our bilateral relationship and our ongoing strategic cooperation on issues such as law enforcement, counterterrorism, and matters of defense, energy, commerce, and trade. Greece continues to meet its NATO obligations on defense spending and serves as a gracious host for our naval forces at Souda Bay. Our Greek-American partnership is strong, and we are grateful to have such a tremendous ally and friend in Greece.
Our nations continue to expand our economic and commercial ties, creating jobs and opportunities for investment and trade on both sides of the Atlantic. This year, the United States is proud to serve as the honored country at the 2018 Thessaloniki International Fair. This historic business and trade exhibition will showcase American technology, enterprise, and innovation, and will further enhance the partnership and cooperation between our great nations.
In 2018, we also celebrate 70 years of Fulbright Greece, a program of educational and cultural exchanges between the United States and Greece. Fulbright Greece, the oldest Fulbright program in Europe, is the flagship international exchange program sponsored by our Government. Since 1948, the program has awarded grants to more than 5,500 Greek and American citizens to study, teach, or conduct research, enriching both of our countries.
The United States and Greece have an enduring bond based on mutual respect, shared values, and an abiding commitment to freedom and sovereignty. More than 1.3 million Americans claim Greek origin. The Greek-American community has made countless positive contributions to our Nation and has played a vital role in maintaining our strong relationship with Greece. On this 197th anniversary celebration of Greek Independence Day, we honor Greece as a strong, faithful ally and valued partner in promoting peace, liberty, and prosperity around the world.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 25, 2018, as Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
In the grocery sector, bricks meet clicks as retailers experiment with omnichannel
Even as commerce continues to digitize, consumer patronage keeps brick-and-mortar grocery stores alive. ‘Grocery is a key stronghold for brick-and-mortar because of the sensory habitual nature of food buying,’ one expert says.
Source: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com
US and Greece signed a bilateral agreement on Tax Compliance and Foreign Bank Accounts (FATCA)
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt signed on Thursday Jan 19 a bilateral agreement to improve international tax compliance and the implementation of the law on Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), as well as the relevant memorandum.
The deal, which forms part of the OECD’s standard guide on information exchange, along with the existing Electronic Cross-Check System for Banking Transactions and Tax Returns are strong tools in the service of the Greek tax authorities in their efforts to tackle tax evasion and find undeclared incomes, the finance ministry said.
New Board
The first meeting of the new elected Board of Directors convened as a body at the Ekali Club.
The Executive Committee was elected and the members on merit were appointed.
The Ekali Club management graciously hosted the meeting at their superior premises and offered a refined cocktail reception that was greatly appreciated.
ΑΝΑΚΟΙΝΩΣΗ ΑΝΑΒΟΛΗΣ ΣΥΝΕΔΡΙΟΥ
Αθήνα, 17 Φεβρουαρίου 2016
To Ελληνο-Αμερικανικό Εμπορικό Επιμελητήριο επιθυμεί μέσα από τις πρωτοβουλίες του να συνδράμει στην αναζήτηση λύσεων για κρίσιμα θέματα της οικονομίας και επιχειρηματικότητας μέσα πάντα από δημιουργικό διάλογο και ανταλλαγή τεκμηριωμένων θέσεων με την συμμετοχή όλων των εμπλεκομένων φορέων. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό είχε προγραμματίσει την διεξαγωγή ενός συνεδρίου πάνω στο μείζον ζήτημα του ασφαλιστικού για την Πέμπτη 18 Φεβρουαρίου με την συμμετοχή σχεδόν όλων των εμπλεκομένων φορέων.
Λόγω όμως της κλιμακούμενης τεταμένης ατμόσφαιρας που επικρατεί και των διαφόρων κινητοποιήσεων αντιλαμβανόμαστε ότι δεν θα μπορεί να υπάρξει ο ανοικτός διάλογος που επιθυμούσαμε και συνεπώς είμαστε υποχρεωμένοι και με αίσθημα ευθύνης να προχωρήσουμε στην αναβολή αυτού του συνεδρίου σε εύθετο χρόνο που θα ανακοινωθεί.
Θέλουμε να ευχαριστήσουμε τους ομιλητές για την διαθεσιμότητα τους αλλά και όσους δήλωσαν συμμετοχή στο συνέδριο. Ευελπιστούμε ότι το συνέδριο μας θα πραγματοποιηθεί σε σύντομο χρονικό διάστημα και μέσα σε ένα κλίμα που να επιτρέψει την συζήτηση και ανταλλαγή απόψεων και θέσεων.
Ελληνο-Αμερικανικό Εμπορικό Επιμελητήριο
North Dakota
It takes a lot to become a legend. It takes a personality, a vision, a lifetime of heroic
deeds and great accomplishments that transcend time. North Dakota is no stranger to
legends. The list of trailblazers and pioneers who have left their mark on this state is as long and diverse as anywhere: Custer, Sitting Bull and Theodore Roosevelt. Lewis
and Clark, and their guide, Sakakawea, are immortalized at the Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan near Washburn.
General George Armstrong Custer commanded Fort Abraham Lincoln near present-day Mandan. From there, he took the 7th Cavalry west to Montana for a show down with chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in 1876. Indian tribes celebrate their heritage each September in Bismarck with the United Tribes International Powwow. The celebration features drummers and dancers from around the world. Theodore Roosevelt credited his stay in North Dakota with helping him become the 26th president. Roosevelt’s life is immortalized in the two units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, connected by the 145-milelong Maah Daah Hey Trail. The North Dakota Heritage Center on the Capitol Grounds in Bismarck takes visitors from the first settlers to present day, and we still celebrate our diverse cultures with events like Norsk Hostfest at Minot.
Source: Visit USA
United Natural Foods extends distribution partnership with Whole Foods Market
United Natural Foods has extended its primary wholesale grocery distribution relationship with Whole Foods Market by entering into a new primary distribution agreement.
The term of the primary distribution agreement between the parties now runs until September 25, 2025, compared to the prior agreement which was set to expire in September, 2020.
United Natural Foods, Inc. carries and distributes more than 85,000 products to more than 40,000 customer locations throughout the United States and Canada. The Company serves a wide variety of retail formats including conventional supermarket chains, natural product superstores, independent retail operators and the food service channel. United Natural Foods, Inc. was ranked by Forbes Magazine in 2014 as one of “America’s Best Managed Companies,” ranked by Fortune in 2012 as one of its “Most Admired American Companies,” and chosen by Food Logistics Magazine as one of its 2013 Top 20 Green Providers.
Article published in Company’s Press Release on Nov 3, 2015
Greece’s Early Harvest Olive Oils
By Lisa Radinovsky
Early harvest extra virgin olive oils can be more expensive and hard to find than other extra virgin oils since unripe olives produce less oil and need to be picked right from the trees. Even so, more are finding their bitter taste, extra low acidity, and higher antioxidant content worth the money.
According to Agronews’ Alexander Bikas, early harvest olive oil costs at least one euro more than conventional olive oil. Bikas wrote that the auctions of the Agricultural Cooperative of the Holy Apostles in Laconia, Greece, which saw the sale of oils produced from Athinoelia and Messinia Koroneiki olives this month to the Italian company Alta Marena for €4.60 per kilogram, “represent a barometer of olive oil prices in Greece,” which leads him to expect Greek EVOO produced later in the season to go for around €3.60.
Bikas also noted that very limited quantities of olive oil were produced from unripe fruit in Greece last year. However, he emphasized that its high polyphenol content appeals to “demanding foreign markets for both pharmaceutical use and “the gourmet restaurants of Italy, the USA and England.”
An authentic early harvest olive oil needs very highly skilled people and carries the passion of those people and the characteristics of the region
Argyris Bouras, owner of Eleones Hellenic Olive Products, told Olive Oil Times that he does not believe early harvest olive oils are popular in Greek stores, although Italians like to use early harvest Greek oils to “blend and upgrade low grade olive oils.” On the other hand, many farmers might simply keep the first oil of the season for their own family and friends leaving little available for the marketplace.
Nevertheless, Agronews lists several advantages to pressing unripe olives: gathering fruit early gives the trees a break that leads to high returns every year; harvesting early reduces the chance of damage to olives from frost, hail and similar weather problems, thus reducing farmers’ risks; and the excellent nutritional value of early harvest olive oil is acknowledged worldwide, which makes it a “super-weapon” for olive oil farmers and producers.
The higher chlorophyll content in unripe olives makes the early harvest oil, called “agourelio” in Greek, greener and richer in healthy polyphenols. According to the abstract of a recent study, “there is a positive correlation of a high level of oleocanthal and oleacein in olive oils with the early time of harvest.”
To promote local agricultural products, the Regional Unit of Halkidiki in northern Greece commissioned an analysis of 32 samples from the Halkidiki early olive oil harvest of 2014-15 by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Department of Pharmacognosy and Chemistry of Natural Products. The results of the study, which used the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) method developed by Dr. Prokopios Magiatis, were said to prove the high nutritional value of Halkidiki early harvest olive oil compared with other Greek and foreign extra virgin olive oils, given its richness in oleocanthal and oleacein.
The average polyphenol content in the samples from Halkidiki was 495 mg/kg, compared with an international average of 330 mg/kg. Yanni’s Limited PDO Halkidiki Early Harvest boasted the highest level: 1026 mg/kg.
Since 2013, some of the oil that meets the appropriate high quality and production requirements, including milling by October 15, has been distinguished by PDO status as “Agoureleo Chalkidikis.” The polyphenols identified in the Halkidiki early harvest oils have been credited with significant anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, cardioprotective and neuroprotective properties.
Early harvest olive oils outside Halkidiki have also shown the high polyphenol content associated with health benefits. For example, a test of the Governor brand’s unfiltered EVOO using the NMR method showed “the highest levels of phenolic compounds ever recorded in Greece,” 1141 mg/kg, according to the company’s website. George Dafnis, co-owner of Olive Fabrica, which produces this oil, told Olive Oil Times the early harvest of the Lianolia olives in Corfu begins in mid-October each year.
“Early harvest” can refer to different harvest times in different parts of Greece, given variations in climate, olive variety, and elevation. Argyris Bouras explained that the first olive oil of the year comes from Halkidiki, which is more famous for Greece’s largest table olives, the green Hondrolia. Eleones Early Harvest is produced in limited quantities from olives handpicked beginning as early as mid-September, pressed the same day, and bottled in Halkidiki. According to Bouras, Eleones Early Harvest (acidity 0.17) has a shelf life of up to 18 months, rather than the usual 9-10 months for many early harvest oils, because the high levels of antioxidants of Halkidiki delay oxidation.
It is possible to find early harvest Greek extra virgin olive oils produced as late as early November, such as Militsa Limited Release Early Harvest EVOO or Esti Early Harvest, which won a Gold Award at the 2014 NYIOOC. These are both made from Koroneiki olives hand-harvested in the southern Peloponnese.
However, mid October is a more common time for early harvest olive oil production in most of Greece. For example, the Olive Table’s Organic Early Harvest Single Estate EVOO originates in family-owned Koroneiki olive groves in the mountain village of Christianoupolis in Messenia, slightly northwest of Militsa, where the unripe olives are handpicked starting in the second or third week of October and crushed within hours of harvesting.
Within the next few weeks, Terra Creta in Kolymvari, Crete will begin offering its first early harvest extra virgin, with just 4,000 bottles of spicy EVOO produced from Koroneiki olives harvested in mid-October. Marketing Manager Emmanouil Karpadakis emphasized that “a specialized group of professional farmers” with “scientific support” will bring the olives to the mill only a few hours from harvesting. “An authentic early harvest olive oil needs very highly skilled people and carries the passion of those people and the characteristics of the region,” he said.
source: Olive Oil Times, October 2015