ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The energetic class of Tobacco merchants and other tobacco-related businessmen put Kavala in the world trade map and generated national and private wealth.

With a businesslike spirit and through dynamic initiatives, they entered the international markets, established the Macedonian tobacco as the finest variety in the world. They managed to multiply the exports and succeeded a significant raise of capital and profit making for their companies.

In 1924 approximately 60 Tobacco Companies were active in Kavala with 160 "Tobaccoshops", that is to say Warehouses where the tobacco processing used to take part. The port of Kavala became the main exporting port of the country in terms of foreign exchange inflows, conducting four times more exports than the one of Thessaloniki.

During the years between the two world wars the tobacco merchants developed a powerful political presence in the city and elected a Mayor from their own class, Evgenios (Eugene) Iordanou.