Olive trees
“Olives are grown […]. The generous dedication to olive trees, the island’s primary source of wealth, is due to the Venetian government which encouraged locals to plant more, giving them prizes for this. The harvest occurs every two years and represents, if the weather is good, 50,000 barili jonii (66-kilo barrels in weight). Their quality could be the best of all the Ionian Islands if they improved how the olives were gathered and prepared. […] The majority of the oil is sent to the Greek peninsula (Thessaly, Piraeus, and the islands in the Aegean Sea); the remainder is sent to Venice and Trieste. Recently, oil exports have improved a lot, and trade has been expanded to include Odessa, Smyrna and all the Asian ports; a minor amount is sent to Alexandria and New York. “
