Agriculture Yerakini's chief agricultural activity is farming green olives. The village is the center of olive growing in Chalkidiki, hence the first green olive preservation plant of Chalkidiki was established here by the government in the seventies. Olive husbandry has developed rapidly in recent years as the monoculture of the farmers.
Tourism Tourism in Chalkidiki officially began in the late 1950s (Tourism Development Plan by Prime Minister
Konstantinos Karamanlis), and in the late 1960s it was declared one of four areas of "Prime Zone for Tourism Development in Greece", the other three being
Corfu,
Rhodes, and
Crete. The Yerakini seaside began development in 1959 when the official tourism development began and the first public tourist
pavilion started operating. Similar pavilions opened in Olympiada and
Ierissos. In the early 1970s the first hotel and bungalows summer resort in Chalkidiki, Gerakina Beach Hotel, opened on the eastern beach, 600 m from the central beach (currently operating, after reconstruction, as Ikos Olivia). Later, more accommodations and other facilities were built for the increasing number of holidaymakers. In the summer, Tourism is now the principal occupation for inhabitants of Yerakini, and other areas, who are involved in tourist services and selling products at the seaside, such as accommodations, food, and folk products. Yerakini's seaside is one of the main vacation resorts of Chalkidiki and attracts thousands of visitors from April to October. It can be reached by bus or car from Thessaloniki via Polygyros or Nea Moudania, or by sea, through Potidaia's canal, or by the primary opening between the two fingers of Kassandra and Sithonia. It has a mooring bay on the
Aegean Sea. Yerakini is a departure point for exploring the rest of
Chalkidiki, with easy access to the peninsula and excursions to the three smaller peninsulas: Kassandra, Sithonia, and
Porto Carras.
Mount Athos is to the east;
Stageira,
Aristotle's birthplace, to the northeast; the archeological sites of
Olynthus and
Potidea,
Petralona cave to the west; and densely wooded
Mount Cholomon 15 km north. Thessaloniki, the historical Byzantine city and capital of
Greek Macedonia is to the northwest.
Magnesite mines While the topsoil is suitable for olive cultivation, the
subsoil in the area of Yerakini, as well as of Patelidas and Vavdos, is rich in
magnesite. The Yerakini area has the most extensive deposits of
magnesite in Greece, particularly in the north and northeast. Magnesite was first found in
Atalanti and in the Province of
Lokris, central Greece. Greek and foreign companies have exploited the deposits for more than 100 years with
open-pit mining, kilns, etc. The Anglo-Greek Magnesite Co. Ltd. (AGM) was the first mining operator in Yerakini and was the principal operator for the first half of the twentieth century in Greece. Galataki (near
Limni) and Afrati (near
Halkida) were exploited by the English company Petrified Ltd., which sold its assets to AGM in 1902. Northern Greece was also found to have magnesite in the concessions of Aghia Paraskevi (east of Thessaloniki) in small production, and in Chalkidiki's concessions of
Vavdos,
Patelidas (11.5 km from Yerakini), and Yerakini (the largest deposits). AGM acquired the assets of the Societe Hellenique des Mines de Magnesite, with mines at Limni, Mantoudi, and Pyli village, on the east coast of Euboea island, in 1912. The raw material was shipped through Galataki harbour. AGM ceased its activity on Euboea island after World War II. The railway it employed (750 mm and 600 mm gauge) was dismantled, with some ruined parts still existing, and the rolling stock was sold for scrap. In 1922, it purchased the Yerakini concession, which was producing 27,000 tons of raw material per year. The deposits were estimated at 300,000 tons in 1947. It used coal and brushwood as well as trunk wood to fuel its kilns. The Yerakini mines, about 3 km inland from the gulf, were reached by means of a narrow-gauge (565 mm) railway, used by the new owners until the 1980s. AGM operated a power system supplying electricity to the mine area in the fifties. It organized various events and activities, such as soccer matches, weekend balls, etc. In 1959, G. Portolos (Grecian Magnesite) bought the magnesite operations and continued the exploitation of magnesite deposits. There are other minor magnesite mining deposits, especially in the southwestern foothills of Trikorfo mountain, exploited by the Antoniou and Xenakis concern for a long period in the 1950s and 1960s. Other locales were Perachori, near
Corinth;
Ermioni (or Kastri); on
Spetses Island in the southern
Argolis in the
Peloponnese; on
Paros Island (
Cyclades); around
Thebes (Thiva), in
Boeotia (Viotia); in
Papades and
Troupi in northern
Euboea (Evia island), which was worked until the 1980s. The mining of magnesite is mostly done by workers commuting from other areas of Chakidiki, mainly from
Zervochoria ( ), and other villages to the north of Chalkidiki. Most residents are workers and technicians working at plants of the Grecian Magnesite company, which was established in 1959 and mines magnesite ore. The company is from the village, the kilns , and the quarries . Vessels come to the harbour of Nea Moudania, from Yerakini, on the
Thermaic gulf, near the
Kassandran peninsula, to load magnesite. ==See also==