Crete is a major producer of olive oil

With an estimated 34 million olive trees - which works out to 62 olive trees for every man, woman and child. Crete also claims to have the oldest living olive tree, though two trees - each over 2000 years old - on either side of the island vie for the title. Branches from both trees were collected to make the wreaths awarded to winning athletes in the Athens 2004 Olympics.

Cretan wine has a long history.

Wine was certainly being made by the Minoans before 1600 BC. Wines from Crete are not listed among those specially prized in classical Greece, but under the Roman Empire in the second century AD Crete was known for a sweet wine, protropos, which was exported to Italy. In late medieval Europe, in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, vino di Candia (Candia is modern Heraklion) and Crete are wine names listed as highly valued in several sources from western and northern Europe. They were sweet and "hot" wines (hot in a dietary sense).

Within the current classification of Greek wine there are several Cretan appellations, including Peza, Archanes, Dafnes and Sitia.