The area’s main economic activities are agriculture in the winter and tourism in the summer. The agricultural production can divided into two main parts. Whereas olive oil has been produced all over
the municipality at least since Minoan times, for the last thirty years large quantities of fruit and vegetables have also been exported. These are grown in plastic greenhouses, which spread over an area of 13.000.000 square meters between the town of Ierapetra and Nea Myrtos. They introduced by the Dutchman Paul Kuypers. Mainly because of the greenhouse production the inhabitants of Ierapetra are on average the richest on Crete.
Ierapetra today throbs with life. It has the largest population in the province of Lasithi and fourth largest in all Crete. In the last census 15480 inhabitants were registered within the town. It is a centre for winter tourism because the temperature seldom falls below 14 centigrade , and the mean annual temperature is 22 centigrade, also it has the most hours of sunshine and lowest rainfall of all Europe. It has a long sandy beach and clean blue sea. Tourist facilities improve all the time, both in terms of services and the numbers of available. The economical growth of the town has resulted in the establishing of branches of all the main Greek banks as can seen on the town plan. Large quantities of olive oil, sultanas, carob beans and almonds are exported from the town, but Ierapetra's main source of revenue is the cultivation of early vegetables which are forced in hot houses.
This is important not only for the town but also for the national economy. These hot houses started to appear in about 1966. Nowadays in the greater Ierapetra area there are over 13000 strema [ 3500 acres ] under polythene with an annual produce of 150—160.000 tons.