The second earliest known producers, great-Pappou Antonis and great-Yiayia Olga, ca 1930. The earliest photo of any of the producers.
The next generation, Pappou Panagiotis, the tall one in the back, ca 1947.
The current proprietor with his Pappou Panagiotis.
About Us
Kala & Mata AB was founded by Mikael Panagiotis Livas, a fifth-generation steward of the family's olive groves in Karpofora, Messinia. The groves themselves predate the company by more than a hundred years. The photograph above of great-Pappou Antonios and great-Yiayia Olga, taken around 1930, is the earliest surviving photograph of the producers who came before us.
The company is incorporated in Sweden, where the founder is based, providing a stable corporate framework for a business that operates across borders. The oil itself remains entirely Greek: grown, milled and bottled in Messinia, and shipped to partners who care about freshness as much as we do.
Mikael became a certified Olive Oil Sommelier in 2020. The qualification is mentioned here not as a credential to wave, but because it shaped how the business runs: every decision about cultivar selection, milling timing, filtration and packaging is made against measurable quality standards rather than tradition for its own sake.
Environmental responsibility runs alongside the quality work, not after it.
The business today has grown well beyond its origins as the family's own supply. Kala & Mata works across four product tiers, built around mutual exclusivity and long-term supply rather than transactional volume.
Generations five and four.
The KARPOFORA brand
KARPOFORA is the brand under which our oil reaches Chinese consumers. The name is taken from the village itself - Καρποφόρα, "fruit-bearing" in Greek.
Our partnership with Beijing Tong Ren Tang Health Pharmaceutical and its modern wellness division, ZhiMa Health (知嘛健康), began in 2020. Tong Ren Tang Health is one of China's largest health retail groups, with close to two thousand stores and roots that stretch back to the seventeenth century. The partnership is built on mutual exclusivity: KARPOFORA is the only Greek olive oil in the range, and TRT Health is our sole channel in mainland China.
