Corfu's marketplace mirrors the history of the region. The exuberant and historically rich atmosphere transports visitors back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Historically, Corfu was a meeting point for different people and cultures from both the East and the West. At present, the island is still a confluence of different people and cultures, and as a result, a variety of goods can still be found here. People from different corners of the world have made this island their home and have opened businesses which ensure a variety of goods that cannot be found elsewhere in other parts of Greece.

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Corfu Town is replete with shops selling jewellery, leather goods, olivewood objects and handmade needlework items, making it impossible to single out one or the other.

For shopping hints and tips, as well as a rundown on some of the better known shops in Corfu, check out our Corfu Shopping Guide below. Take a break from shopping at one of the many Corfu restaurants, tavernas or cafes, located throughout Corfu. Our Greece shopping guide provides some general information on what to buy on a holiday in Greece.

Corfu Shopping Guide

Local Handicrafts

In the past, the centre of the old town was popular among craftsmen and artisans; here, a variety of goods were not only produced but also sold. Also replete with a variety of shops were the Jewish Quarter and the ‘Pinia'. Even today, these places are popular Corfu shopping spots that offer a multitude of goods and crafts.

The most attractive goods are those that come from the Corfiot countryside and are inspired by popular art. The gold and silver jewellery available in Corfu has Byzantine roots and the aesthetics draw inspiration from Ancient Greece, keeping alive a 5,000-year-old tradition. The jewellery is made by the local gold and silversmiths, and hence the designs are original and the items are available at reasonable prices. Another popular craft in Corfu is pottery, which has withstood the test of time.

You can find pottery workshops all over the island, particularly at Corfu Town, Milia, Korakiana and Sgombou. Also available in abundance are handcrafted olivewood products, which are typical to Corfu owing to the many olive trees that are grown on the island. An exciting range of handicrafts can be found in family run workshops all over Corfu.

Kumquat

Another item typical to Corfu is the kumquat fruit, which is sold as a preserve as well as a liqueur. Both items are easily available on the island. Kumquat is a Chinese fruit that has been cultivated in Corfu since the 1800s. In Greece, it can only be found in Corfu. The taste of the kumquat liqueur is distinctive and appealing; it is also serves as an ideal gift.

Souvenir Items

There are many options for shopping in Corfu. Several souvenir-gift shops offer unusual antique jewellery, plates, textiles, brass and icons. In fact, some of these shops offer a distinct selection of engravings and prints that portray different scenes from Corfu. The originals (which are taken from old books and magazines) can cost up to €150 ($195), while reproductions can cost as little as €10 ($13).

Apart from traditional antiquities that are available across the island, some shops offer contemporary Greek arts and crafts, including jewellery, decorative and ornamental items, ceramics and small sculptures. These are mostly made by well-known Greek artists and artisans. Corfu is replete with ceramics. In particular and of special note is the Pottery Workshop. Here, you can observe Sofoklis Ikonomides, the owner of the workshop, making and decorating all the pottery items that are for sale. There are both decorative and functional items available, which appeal to all tastes.

As mentioned before, Corfu has many souvenirs that are available and can be purchased. Each item ensures that you can take home a memento of your Ionian stay with you. Some of the most popular souvenir items in Corfu are the local honey, leather goods and the island's very own olive oil. Kythira offers the best deals for local honey, while Paxi is the ideal destination for those seeking olive oil. Several shops in and around both Paxi and Corfu Town are popular for their Corfu handcrafts, many of which are often carved in extraordinary detail and made from olivewood. These items include toys, ornaments and beautiful salad bowls.

Shopping Places

Koumquat products (1)

Koumquat, the traditional product of Corfu: Koumquat fruit found its way from China into Europe some time in the late 18th century. It has been mostly cultivated in Corfu since 1924 in the valley of Nymfes, near Platonas village, to the north part of Corfu. The fertile soil, abundant water and mild climate are factors that have favoured its growth. It is also cultivated in other parts of Corfu, counting about 6,000 trees of Koumquat in the whole island.

Koumquat is part of the citrus family and the fruit looks like a small orange. The leaves are dark green, the blossom is white and it grows either in bunches or separately. The tree is about 1 -2 meters high and the fruit is about 2 centimetres in diameter and oval. Its thick and fleshy peel is yellow-orange in colour and the inside is sweet-bitter & sour. Around December the fruit ripens, changing colour from green to orange. The harvesting season lasts from January to May.

Apart from eating it in its natural or dried form or using it in cooking, it can be used in making spoon sweets, jams, syrups and liqueurs. In fact, Corfu's most famous product is Koumquat liqueur. This liqueur can be made by macerating Kcumquats in vodka, gin, brandy or other clear spirits. Kumquat is rich in Vitamin C and 13 other vitamins. The fruit also has medicinal properties, as it relieves hypertension.

Koumquat can be found as liqueurs and spoon sweets in every single gift shop of Corfu. Remember that this island is the only area in Greece where this special fruit is cultivated, so you will hardly find this particular liqueur somewhere else.

Address : Nimfes Association of Koumquat products Nimfes Village

Phone : +30 26630 94073

Koumquat products (2)

Address : Mavromatis Koumquat – Distillery of Corfu products Ethnikis Paleokastritsas street, Corfu

Phone : +30 26630 22174

Website : http://www.koumquat.com/

Koumquat products (3)

Address : Vassilakis Koumquat products Aghios Ioannis Village, Triklino, Corfu

Phone : +30 26610 52440

Sweets Workshop

Mandolato: This white nougat is another trademark of Corfu Island.It can be found In the most of the sweet shops, but the original, which is really hard to eat, it can be found at the sweets work shop of Kritikos.

Address : Dimarhou kola street 11, Corfu Town

Phone : +30 26610 40444

Corfu Meat Processing Factory

Local charcuterie: A large range of salted and smoked meat is proposed in Corfu such as Noumbolo, bacon, dried salami and village sausages with spices. They can be found in the most of the butcher shops and at this factory.

Address : Kerkyraiki alantopiia, Ethnikis paleokastritsas street, Gouvia, Corfu

Phone : +30 26610 91456

Triklino Vineyard

It might be presumed that a sweet-sour notion of flavour harmony has as much validity in wine as in food. Corfu is especially famous for its wines which have become a tradition of the island; no heavy industry is producing the tasty wines for they are all made from private vineyards owned by families or small associations.
All the wines of Corfu have no chemical additives and the most popular of those are:
Kakotrigis: a white wine that can be either sweet or dry.It originated from Aghios Matheos region.
Moschato: a light and sweet white wine which can be found in the tavernas at mount pantocrator villages.The production is limit.
Petrokoritho: a dry and crimson wine from grapes which cultivated mostly in the region of Sinarades village.
Skopelitiko: This is the classical Corfiot red dry wine.
Fraoula: A strong heavy red wine. A table grape which, even though it does not belong to the usual wine-producing varieties, is in fact used to make wine in many households.
Matzavi: A dry mellow wine made from dark red grapes with heavy taste, known as black Corfiot wine.
Other varieties which complete the wine map of Corfu are the "rozaki", the "pheidia", the "kokkinomousitsa:, the "xipleko", the "Arkadino", the "Koryianitis", the "Afioni", the "Agoumastos", the "alepoura" and the "Pinpiniola" - grapes which are usually mixed during production with those mentioned above.

Corfu wines can be found in the super markets or in wine shops and of course at the sources - the family - vineries. At Triklino vineyard for example, wich is located on a hill with panoramic view of central Corfu, you can see wine production tools and taste local wine with traditional snacks (meze) as well as having a walk on the surrounding vines.

Address : Triklino vineyard Corfu Wine & Olive Tradition Pelekas Road , Karoubatika, Municipality Parelion, Corfu

Phone : +30 26610 58184, 6945890285 (Katina Vlachou), 6976777969 (Stamatis Pissias)

Website : http://www.triklinovineyard.gr

Spiros Grammenos & Family Winery

For the Grammenos Family the wine-making begins on the mountain slopes of Sinarades and in the valley of skafonas.
There the family selects the finest Corfiot grapes which are converted to wine with the use of advanced equipment. Making an outstanding local wine which is bottled and comes to your table composing an important of our life. Our target the constant improvement of our products with respect to the tradition.

Address : Spiros Grammenos & Family Aerostato, Sinarades, Corfu

Phone : +30 26610 54687 / 54484, 6944475702

Sotiris & Irini LIvadiotis Winery

In 1989 Sotiris and Irini Livadiotis, opened a small winery on the island, producing one label, Halikouna, a white wine made from the Kakotrygis, a variety for which they received a vin de pays appellation. They are also involved in the revival of two local cultivars, the white Petrokoritho, a table grape of predominantly table use, and the red Skopelitis.

Address : Aghios Matheos Village, Halikounas, Corfu

Phone : +30 26610 76315

Nyssos Olive Oil

"The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palms, the gold beads ,the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water." "Prospero's Cell" by Lawrence Durrell.

Olive oil, used pure or cooked, is one of the major ingredients in the Corfiot cuisine as well as in the cuisine of all the Mediterranean countries.Olives in Corfu are harvested from November until April, six to eight months after their spring blossoms appear. Olive trees require very warm average temperatures and grow successfully in Corfu, with its mild winters and long, hot summers. In many regions, olives are beaten from the tree with poles and caught in large nets.

Other olive farmers now use machine harvesting, including trunk and branch shakers. However, in Corfu growers collect olives that fall naturally to the ground, or are helped on their way by wind and rain. Once collected, the olives are taken at once to an olive press, since, if they are not pressed immediately they begin to oxidise and ferment. Thousands of years ago, crushing was done by hand in spherical stone basins. Today, in a similar method, olives are crushed by mechanical stainless steel grindstones. Corfiot olive oil has high quality, noble aroma, exceptional taste and can be found in the super markets and in the producer`s olive presses and in the standardization workshops

Address : **

Ceramic Art

Kostas Panaretos and his wife Klio Brenner create excellent ceramic art and pottery in a unique way, making coats for the pottery from Greek soil. They are then fired with wood, which imprints the drawings through the action of smoke. Over the last years they searched and used the ancient Greek technique "Terra Sigillata".

Address : Ethn. Peleka P.O.: 379 49100 Corfu, Greece

Phone : +30 26610 95069

Fax : +30 26610 95069

Email : panaretos@ceramicart.gr

Website : http://www.ceramicart.gr/

Shopping in Corfu