World Olive Oil Competition 2024 Live Updates

Apr. 24 01:18 UTC

Costas Vasilopoulos report­ing from Athens

Monastery Krka, a Serbian Orthodox monastery from cen­tral Dalmatia in Croatia, won a Silver Award at the World Competition for its epony­mous extra vir­gin, a medium blend.

Founded in the 14^th cen­tury and ded­i­cated to Archangel Michael, the monastery is located in Croatia’s Krka National Park, an attrac­tion for thou­sands of tourists every year.

In fruit­ful years, Krka monastery pro­duces around 2,000 liters of extra vir­gin olive oil from 500 olive trees.This is the sec­ond year in a row that the pro­ducer is awarded at the World Competition, hav­ing won a Gold Award at the 2023 NYIOOC.

Widely known for their wine pro­duc­tion, many monas­ter­ies in south­ern Europe also have a long tra­di­tion of olive oil pro­duc­tion dat­ing back hun­dreds or even thou­sands of years.

In 2022, the Greek Orthodox monastery of Vatopedi from the autonomous polity of Mount Athos in north­ern Greece, won no less than four Gold Awards in the 10^th edi­tion of the World Competition for its locally pro­duced olive oils from Koroneiki olives.

Established in the 8^th cen­tury, the Mount Athos com­plex of 20 ortho­dox monas­ter­ies is a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion for peo­ple from around the world look­ing to expe­ri­ence the unique atmos­phere of the polity and taste the sim­ple but fla­vor­ful Mediterranean dishes the monks offer to vis­i­tors.

Apr. 21 15:54 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

With 504 of the indus­try’s most cov­eted qual­ity awards already achieved by pro­duc­ers in 16 coun­tries so far in the Northern Hemisphere divi­sion of the 2024 World Olive Oil Competition, orga­niz­ers reported they are in the final stretch in the long process of ana­lyz­ing the 913 entries received.

What is already clear from the data in the Official Guide and the World Olive Oil Rankings is that the suc­cess rate — the per­cent­age of entries who are bestowed a Silver or Gold Award — is markedly lower than in recent years.

In the 2023 Olive Oil Times Harvest Survey of more than 4,000 pro­duc­ers, respon­dents across the Mediterranean region gave the 2023 har­vest a dis­mal rat­ing in terms of yields and qual­ity.

“Poor weather con­di­tions and frosts at the end of March did a lot of dam­age to the olive flow­ers and fol­low­ing pro­duc­tion,” said a pro­ducer in Turkey, Mustafa Safa Soydan. ​“For some elderly farm­ers, there has never been such a poor har­vest since 1990.”

Nearly 43 per­cent of pro­duc­ers said exces­sive heat had affected their har­vest, a sig­nif­i­cant increase from the 36 per­cent who said the same in the 2021 har­vest sur­vey. Forty per­cent of respon­dents said drought impacted their 2023 har­vest, a sub­stan­tial rise from the 33 per­cent who said the same in 2021.

“In my region [the Croatian island of Šipan], we had a lot of rain dur­ing the sum­mer months, fol­lowed by exces­sive heat. That affected olive trees,” said Mato Goravica of Bonita. ​“In August and September, there was a high infes­ta­tion of the olive fruit fly, caus­ing a lot of dam­age to the olives.”

Apr. 16 21:57 UTC

Ylenia Granitto report­ing from Rome

With over three quar­ters of the entries from the Northern Hemisphere eval­u­ated by the NYIOOC analy­sis team, Italy still main­tains the record of the most awarded coun­try with 117 acco­lades earned so far.

The pro­duc­ers of the Boot make a fine show­ing in the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils and the World Olive Oil Rankings with their blends and mono­va­ri­etals crafted with great care and skill. Some of the many vari­eties at the heart of such out­stand­ing pro­duc­tions are worth high­light­ing.

Moraiolo is widely used in blends from Tuscany, Umbria and high Lazio. In these areas Dimora Ghirlandaio, Maraviglia, Olivando, and A1980 cul­ti­vate this rus­tic tree that thrives both on steep ter­races and on smooth hills. It may give extra vir­gin olive oils with a bold per­son­al­ity built on arti­choke, almond and herba­ceous notes.

Brought on the global stage not so long ago by the pro­duc­ers of south­ern Lazio, Itrana has an enthralling tomato scent. In the past it was exclu­sively processed for table olives, while today it advances award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils like those pro­duced by Frantoio Vin Pia, Zangrilli and Carroccia Campodimele in the province of Latina.

Tonda Iblea is authocto­nous from the south­east cor­ner of Sicily, where Frantoi Cutrera, Vèrnera, Agrestis and Spedalotto pro­duce pre­mium mono­va­ri­etals which express hints of tomato and cut grass. It is much appre­ci­ated also as table olive after a prepa­ra­tion process in brine. Quite resis­tant to low tem­per­a­ture, cen­turies old plants of this vari­eties can be eas­ily found at high alti­tudes on the Hyblaean plateau.

The banks of Garda Lake are the ideal habi­tat for the Casaliva vari­ety, whose fruit give extra vir­gin olive oils with vibrant notes of fresh almond. The mono­va­ri­etal pro­duced by Agraria Riva del Garda earned its place in the Official Guide for the sev­enth year in a row.

Apr. 16 21:40 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

The chal­leng­ing cli­mate did not deter a Japanese pro­fes­sional musi­cian from delv­ing into the olive oil indus­try and even­tu­ally pro­duc­ing an award-win­ning prod­uct.

“We are so thrilled,” Keisuke Maeda, owner of the Maedaya Olive, told Olive Oil Times after receiv­ing the Gold Award for his Mission mono­va­ri­etal.

Facing win­ter tem­per­a­tures as low as ‑10 °C, Maeda con­ducted exten­sive research both inter­na­tion­ally and domes­ti­cally before estab­lish­ing his orchard near Mt. Fuji. Today, the farm boasts a vari­ety of olive vari­eties hail­ing from Spain, Italy, and Greece.

Apr. 11 14:43 UTC

Costas Vasilopoulos report­ing from Athens

Most of the hun­dreds of brands awarded so far at the World Olive Oil Competition are fil­tered extra vir­gin olive oils, mean­ing they have under­gone the final pro­duc­tion stage of fil­tra­tion (also known as rack­ing) to remove solid par­ti­cles and mois­ture.

However, unfil­tered olive oils have also found their way to the com­pe­ti­tion podium.

Terra Delyssa Unfiltered, pro­duced by the Tunisian CHO Group, and Dimitri Unfiltered from the Dimitri Olive Farms from the Greek Peloponnese penin­sula, both won Silver Awards in this year’s com­pe­ti­tion.

Most com­mer­cially avail­able olive oils are fil­tered. Filtered olive oils tend to bet­ter resist dete­ri­o­ra­tion over time and there­fore boast a longer shelf life. Some olive oil enthu­si­asts, how­ever, enjoy the darker, cloudy appear­ance of unfil­tered olive oils and the richer fla­vor and aro­mas they might offer.

Apr. 10 10:57 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

Forty more award win­ners will be unveiled this morn­ing at 9:00 AM in New York (13:00 UTC), NYIOOC orga­niz­ers said moments ago. The win­ning brands will be revealed in the Official Guide. At press time, 70 per­cent of the Northern Hemisphere entries had been ana­lyzed, and their results cer­ti­fied, offi­cials noted.

Apr. 9 14:48 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

So far, 315 awards have been bestowed on pro­duc­ers from 14 coun­tries in the Northern Hemisphere divi­sion of the 2024 World Olive Oil Competition. According to the real-time results on the World Olive Oil Ranking and the Official Guide.

Results are con­tin­u­ing to be tab­u­lated, cer­ti­fied and announced through the var­i­ous chan­nels, while Olive Oil Times jour­nal­ists in every region reach out to the award win­ners for their reac­tions.

Apr. 4 13:41 UTC

Ylenia Granitto report­ing from Rome

With less than half of this year’s entries eval­u­ated by the NYIOOC analy­sis team, Italy is still in a solid first place as the most awarded coun­try with 70 acco­lades, a num­ber expected to grow in the com­ing days. The pro­vi­sional out­come fol­lows a strong par­tic­i­pa­tion by Italian pro­duc­ers, who sub­mit­ted 212 entries so far.

Producers in the cen­ter and south of the ​‘Bel Paese’ can already boast a rich haul. Tuscan and Sicilian pro­duc­ers earned 17 awards, while 12 acco­lades went to Apulian farm­ers, who usu­ally account for half of the national out­put.

Producers in Lazio and Umbria obtained 8 and 5 awards respec­tively. With a few awards each, the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Sardegna are also in the Official Guide and World Olive Oil Rankings, along with Trentino-Alto Adige, Liguria, Campania, Calabria, and Basilicata, each rep­re­sented by an award-win­ning pro­ducer, so far.

Over the years, the olive grow­ers of the ​‘Bel Paese’ have gained a rep­u­ta­tion for the qual­ity of their pro­duc­tions. With their exper­tise and com­mit­ment, they were able to over­come a series of very dif­fi­cult har­vests. The last olive crop year was no excep­tion, as it was ham­pered by very dry spring and sum­mer months, inter­spersed by strong winds and rains, which caused fruit losses and a con­se­quent decline in pro­duc­tion in sev­eral areas.

Despite that, again this year, the pro­fes­sion­al­ism achieved by the country’s pro­duc­ers have allowed the qual­ity of their extra vir­gin olive oils to stand out on the world stage, where many more Italian labels are set to make an appear­ance as the results con­tin­ueto unfold.

Apr. 3 20:43 UTC

Costas Vasilopoulos report­ing from Athens

Traditional olive oil-pro­duc­ing regions of south­ern Greece are strongly rep­re­sent­ing the coun­try in the com­pe­ti­tion.

Producers from the Peloponnese penin­sula, a vir­tu­ally con­tin­u­ous olive grove that hosts more than 30 mil­lion olive trees, have won 11 awards (5 Gold and 6 Silver) out of the 20 awards received by Greek pro­duc­ers so far.

Further south, pro­duc­ers on Crete over­came a chal­leng­ing har­vest sea­son with low yields to also cel­e­brate vic­tory in the com­pe­ti­tion.

“Winning the award filled us with pride in our dynamic course, but also with grat­i­tude for our fel­low trav­el­ers,” said Maria Sgourou of Skoutari from Lasithi in east­ern Crete. ​“Faithful to our com­mit­ment to offer the high­est qual­ity, we con­tinue our effort with even greater per­sis­tence.”

Olive oil pro­duc­ers from other regions, includ­ing Attica in cen­tral Greece, the islands of Evia and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea and Corfu in the Ionian Sea, have also made it to the podium in the world’s most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity con­test.

More pro­duc­ers from across the coun­try are eagerly await­ing the unveil­ing of the rest of the win­ning brands in the com­ing days.

Apr. 3 20:39 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

As the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition enters its third week, six Spanish autonomous com­mu­ni­ties have com­bined to earn 33 Gold Awards and ten Silver Awards.

Producers from Andalusia, respon­si­ble for two-thirds of Spanish olive oil pro­duc­tion in the 2023/24 crop year, led the way with 27 awards. Meanwhile, farm­ers and millers from Castille-La Mancha, the sec­ond-largest pro­duc­ing region, have cel­e­brated six awards this year.

In Extremadura, the third-largest pro­duc­ing region, one pro­ducer earned two awards, while Catalan extra vir­gin olive oils earned five awards. Off the coast of east­ern Spain, two pro­duc­ers from the Balearic Islands have earned NYIOOC hon­ors, and one pro­ducer from the north­ern region of Navarre is cel­e­brat­ing debut suc­cess at the World Competition.

Overall 14 Spanish autonomous com­munti­ties com­bined to pro­duce 831,000 tons of olive oil in 2023/24. With judg­ing set to con­tinue through May, farm­ers and millers from more Spanish regions may soon join the cel­e­bra­tion.

Mar. 27 14:28 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

Forty more award win­ning brands were announced today, bring­ing the total to 242, accord­ing to the up-to-the-minute data on the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils and the World Olive Oil Ranking web­site.

The NYIOOC analy­sis team is method­i­cally explor­ing each sam­ple in a blind tast­ing for the olfac­tory and gus­ta­tory char­ac­ter­is­tics of a great extra vir­gin olive oil.

Mar. 26 13:12 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

The rolling results were paused today, orga­niz­ers said, to allow the analy­sis and tech­ni­cal teams some extra time. Approximately one-third of this years’ entries have been eval­u­ated so far, they added.

Mar. 25 20:10 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

In the face of a tough sea­son, expe­ri­ence and pas­sion were piv­otal in secur­ing a Gold Award for Sicilian Mandranova and its mono­va­ri­etal Olive Oil & Beyond Cerasuola.

“Of course we are very happy. The work of the whole sea­son, long and dif­fi­cult. The doubts about the qual­ity of the prod­uct until the very moment of har­vest,” Silvia di Vincenzo, co-owner of Mandranova, told Olive Oil Times.

“The plea­sure that I imag­ine all of those who bot­tled our Cerasuola are expe­ri­enc­ing. The strength­en­ing of the human and com­mer­cial ties. Those are my thoughts and my feel­ings at the news [of the award],” she noted.

Di Vincenzo, her hus­band Giuseppe and the son Gabriele (pic­tured) over­see exten­sive olive orchards nes­tled in the hills of south-cen­tral Sicily, directly fac­ing the sea.

Mar. 25 19:31 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

As the 2024 NYIOOC New York World Olive Oil Competition unfolds, the antic­i­pa­tion for Gold and Silver Awards inten­si­fies, herald­ing new trends in the olive oil indus­try.

So far, Italy is lead­ing the charge with an impres­sive haul of 53 tro­phies. Italian pro­duc­ers have also made a strong show­ing in sub­mis­sions, pre­sent­ing 209 extra vir­gin olive oil brands to the NYIOOC.

Not far behind, Croatia and Spain have secured 35 and 34 awards respec­tively. However, pro­duc­ers in the United States are the ones turn­ing heads in this year’s early results.

In just the first five days of the com­pe­ti­tion, U.S. pro­duc­ers have already achieved 41 awards. Remarkably, U.S. pro­duc­ers have sub­mit­ted 130 EVOOs for judg­ing, sur­pass­ing Spain (122), Greece (102), and Croatia (97), mak­ing their pres­ence felt more strongly than ever before at the world’s pre­em­i­nent olive oil qulity con­test.

Mediterranean pro­duc­ers faced severe drought and more extreme weather events in the last two sea­sons, affect­ing the yield and qual­ity in many regions, accord­ing to a recent Olive Oil Times sur­vey.

Mar. 25 15:32 UTC

Ofeoritse Daibo report­ing from Paris

Moulin de la Coquille is a fam­ily-run com­pany located in the Southeastern France. The com­pany, which pro­duces extra vir­gin olive oils with aro­mas of raw arti­choke and freshly cut grass, won a Gold Award for a fourth time.

“This is the fourth time that we have par­tic­i­pated in this com­pe­ti­tion, and it is also the fourth time that we have been rewarded,” pro­ducer Aurélie Sirvent said. ​“This award once again reas­sures us of the qual­ity of our work and also pushes us to give the best of our­selves for the com­ing years.”

“This year, the major chal­lenge for us was the change in our pro­duc­tion line,” Sirvent explained. ​“We had to get used to our new work tools. And it is not like a rac­ing car that we could just test before the com­pe­ti­tion. So we risked all the hard work we had put in, in the entire year.”

“Winning again is an oppor­tu­nity to gain more vis­i­bil­ity. It also means being aware that a jury made up of esteemed experts, has once again rewarded our work and know-how.”

Mar. 25 13:14 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

The Extremaduran pro­ducer Marqués de Valdueza is cel­e­brat­ing its sev­enth-straight Gold Award at the World Competition.

“Everyone at Marqués de Valdueza is thrilled to win seven NYIOOC Gold Awards in a row,” sales man­ager John-Dominic Cancilla said. ​“We can see that all of our hard work is pay­ing off and that the cen­turies of olive oil tra­di­tion have not gone to waste on the Valdueza fam­ily.”

The award caps off a dis­ap­point­ing har­vest at the Perales de Valdueza estate despite a sig­nif­i­cant pro­duc­tion rebound in the wider autonomous com­mu­nity.

“We only har­vested about half of our aver­age crop with an oil yield of about 12 per­cent,” Cancilla said. ​“This very small har­vest, how­ever, gave us an excel­lent olive oil.”

Caniclla attrib­uted the company’s sus­tained suc­cess to an inte­grated pro­duc­tion method that ​“entails care­ful plan­ning and exe­cu­tion of norms and pro­ce­dures that are giv­ing us a Marqués de Valdueza olive oil capa­ble of con­sis­tently win­ning the NYIOOC Gold Award.”

“We feel that this acco­lade has enhanced the pres­tige of our oil and, in turn, helped sales in the very com­pet­i­tive U.S. mar­ket,” Caniclla said.

Mar. 25 13:03 UTC

Costas Vasilopoulos report­ing from Athens

“We are so proud of our first ever award at the NYIOOC,” Charilaos Gounaras told Olive Oil Times. ​“This award will give us strength and keep us going in our long jour­ney in olive oil pro­duc­tion.”

With a unique name inspired by the books of Herodotus, con­sid­ered the father of his­tory, 8:26 Histories won a Silver Award for its organic extra vir­gin blend from Manaki and Throumbolia olives grown on the Evia island in the Aegean Sea.

“This year’s har­vest was not lined with rose petals,” Gounaras told us. ​“Climate change remains a big prob­lem, with the mild win­ters and sum­mer heat­waves it brings that adversely impact the fruit­ing of the trees. The scarcity of work­ers also poses a seri­ous chal­lenge to our busi­ness. However, all these prob­lems can be tack­led with inno­va­tion and mod­ern­ized pro­duc­tion meth­ods with­out com­pro­mis­ing qual­ity.”

Mar. 25 12:59 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, Casa Olio Sperlonga is cel­e­brat­ing the recog­ni­tion of its L’Olio dei Papi at the World Olive Oil Competition.

The pro­duc­ers had to nav­i­gate through cli­matic chal­lenges in their region, within the ter­ri­to­ries that his­tor­i­cally belonged to the Papal States.

“In spring 2023 we were very con­fi­dent about the har­vest and its qual­ity. Unfortunately, with the sum­mer, we suf­fered from the cli­matic effects that com­pro­mised both the quan­tity and the over­all qual­ity,” Domenico Sperlonga told Olive Oil Times.

“Despite all the dif­fi­cul­ties, we are proud to have man­aged to main­tain the qual­ity stan­dards of our L’Olio dei Papi and to have once again won the NYIOOC prize,” he added. ​“We believe that the NYIOOC Prize is the right recog­ni­tion of the efforts and ded­i­ca­tion of our entire team and that it encour­ages us to always do bet­ter.”

Mar. 22 20:17 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

With two Gold Awards for its flag­ship prod­uct, Terra Delyssa, and a Silver Award for its Moresh, CHO Group were at cen­ter stage at the World Olive OIl Competition today.

“We are deeply hum­bled and filled with immense pride at hav­ing been awarded the Gold Award for the third year in a row,” Wajih Rekik, CEO of CHO America, told Olive Oil Times.

“This honor is far more than a recog­ni­tion of Terra Delyssa. It sym­bol­izes the ded­i­ca­tion, pas­sion, and hard work of our entire net­work. From the devoted farm­ers and skilled millers to every mem­ber of our fam­ily who plays a part in bring­ing our vision to life. It’s that com­mit­ment that allowed us, the under­dog of the indus­try, to stand out in the global mar­ket­place,” Rekik noted.

“A cru­cial ele­ment of our suc­cess lies in our unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to qual­ity, sup­ported by full blockchain trace­abil­ity back to the orchards,” he added.

Rekik also expressed the company’s pride for the suc­cess of Moresh, Moroccan-orig­ined olive oil, which secured a Silver Award for the sec­ond time in a row.

“We take pride and have a big sense of respon­si­bil­ity in being the global ambas­sador for Tunisian and Moroccan olive oil. We are moti­vated to fur­ther ele­vate the stan­dards of qual­ity and trace­abil­ity. Our deep­est grat­i­tude goes to our part­ners, con­sumers, and all who have sup­ported our jour­ney,” Rekik con­cluded.

Mar. 22 20:10 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

As its fourth day con­cludes, the 2024 edi­tion of the World Olive Oil Competition has revealed over 160 Gold and Silver Awards.

This year’s con­test again show­cases the diver­sity of the olive world, with 59 dif­fer­ent olive tree cul­ti­vars already tak­ing cen­ter stage in early results.

These cul­ti­vars, uti­lized in mono­va­ri­etal and blends, under­score the unique inter­play of genet­ics, soil com­po­si­tion, cli­mate con­di­tions, and the global com­mit­ment of pro­duc­ers to pre­serv­ing and nur­tur­ing diver­sity.

Mar. 22 19:56 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

The pro­duc­ers behind Finca La Gramanosa are cel­e­brat­ing a Gold Award at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, improv­ing upon the Silver Award the Catalan mill earned in 2023.

David Ribas, the company’s pro­duc­tion direc­tor, said it was a plea­sure to par­tic­i­pate once again at the world’s pre­em­i­nent olive oil qual­ity con­test.

“Once again, we feel blessed with the result,” he said. ​“It is the fruit of our efforts, enthu­si­asm and what nature has given us. The qual­ity of our brand keeps pace, and despite the fact that the road gets nar­rower, we man­age to move for­ward,” he said.

Mar. 22 13:01 UTC

Lisa Anderson report­ing from Cape Town

“A heart­felt thank you to the judges at the NYIOOC, we are hum­bled by your recog­ni­tion and grate­ful for the oppor­tu­nity to show­case our pas­sion for pro­duc­ing the finest olive oil,” Bondolio, a small, organic pro­ducer from Winters, California shared on their Facebook page. ​“And to our loyal cus­tomers and sup­port­ers, your unwa­ver­ing belief in our brand fuels our jour­ney and inspires us to reach new heights.”

Mar. 22 11:04 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

Amid the tri­als of an excep­tion­ally harsh sea­son for Central Italian grow­ers, the organic extra vir­gin olive oil pro­ducer Carma has tri­umphantly clinched two Silver Awards at the 2024 New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC), show­cas­ing resilience and qual­ity in the face of adver­sity.

“We might be used to win but after such a ter­ri­ble sea­son and extreme con­di­tions dur­ing har­vest we believe that such awards grat­ify the effort we made,” Giulio di Gropello, CEO of the organic farm Carma, told Olive Oil Times. ​“We tend to be hard to please, and that means that 2023 will not remain in our annals as the best sea­son ever. Still, hav­ing both prod­ucts sub­jected to the jury and awarded, it cer­ti­fies that the work done was car­ried out seri­ously.”

“From our team, we expect the best, and thus a Gold would have def­i­nitely made us hap­pier, but we are aware that we did our best in a year that was cer­tainly very com­pli­cated for cen­tral Italy,” di Gropello told us. ​“Climate change is a fact now; we can only hope that this bloom is more for­tu­nate and that the next result will be even bet­ter.”

Mar. 21 21:37 UTC

Nedjeljko Jusup report­ing from Zadar, Croatia

Ivica Vlatković, a renowned Croatian olive grower, is sat­is­fied with the start of this year’s NYIOOC.

With 21 awards so far –15 Gold and six Silver — Croatia stands in third place, behind Italy and the United States.

Vlatković is not hid­ing his sat­is­fac­tion either, as he won Gold for his two oils, a mono­va­ri­etal Fortica Šoltanka and a Coratina-Leccino blend. ​“I am happy that I once again con­firmed the qual­ity of my olive oils,” he told Olive Oil Times.

Vlatković has been com­pet­ing in the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity eval­u­a­tion in New York since 2017. So far, he has achieved 11 Gold and four Silver Awards. His fam­ily farm in the pic­turesque town of Novigrad in Northern Dalmatia has 500 trees and 50 vari­eties of olives, of which approx­i­mately 50 per­cent are local, and the other 50 per­cent were intro­duced. The trees are five to ten years old, irri­gated with nat­ural spring water.

Vlatković is also the pres­i­dent of the Association of Zadar County Olive Growers.

“I am proud as the mem­bers of our asso­ci­a­tion are again con­firm­ing high qual­ity,” Vlatković said, adding that his goal was to encour­age more peo­ple to engage in olive grow­ing, an occu­pa­tion that he con­sid­ers good for one’s health.

“You are active in nature, you have a healthy life,” said Vatković, who is con­sid­ered the most suc­cess­ful doc­tor among olive grow­ers and the most suc­cess­ful olive grower among doc­tors.

Last year Croatian olive grow­ers sent 131 sam­ples of olive oils to the NYIOOC and gar­nered 105 awards. Due to the extremely demand­ing 2023/24 cam­paign, they sent fewer sam­ples this year (92), but believe they will again be among the best in terms of their suc­cess.

Mar. 21 17:18 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

“This year is very spe­cial,” said Juan Ignacio Valdés, La Olivilla’s chief exec­u­tive, after receiv­ing the news that the company’s flag­ship Dehesa de la Sabina brand earned a Gold Award, its tenth, at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

The brand sits atop the World Olive Oil Ranking, shar­ing the top spot with just nine other pro­duc­ers among thou­sands of con­tenders.

Along with con­firm­ing a decade of excel­lence at the com­pany that prides itself on its organic prac­tices, Valdés said this year’s award is espe­cially grat­i­fy­ing after two immensely chal­leng­ing har­vests in Andalusia.

“The efforts we have made dur­ing such a com­pli­cated har­vest have had the hap­pi­est end­ing one can have, which is the recog­ni­tion by such a pres­ti­gious panel,” he said. ​“This year has been espe­cially chal­leng­ing because the high tem­per­a­tures in October made it dif­fi­cult for the olive tree to pro­duce the oil and for us to per­form cold extrac­tion in the mill.”

Reflecting on the company’s tenth NYIOOC acco­lade, Valdés said it has con­sol­i­dated Dehesa de la Sabina’s posi­tion as a world-class extra vir­gin olive oil.

Mar. 21 17:13 UTC

Costas Vasilopoulos report­ing from Athens

Satisfaction and excite­ment over­whelmed Greek pro­ducer Olivian Groves after win­ning a Silver Award at the 2024 edi­tion of the World Olive Oil Competition.

“Winning a Silver Award for our lead­ing Hermione extra vir­gin at the renowned NYIOOC com­pe­ti­tion is so impor­tant to us,” the company’s gen­eral man­ager Mary Savas told Olive Oil Times.

Olivian Groves was awarded for the Hermione medium mono­va­ri­etal from Manaki olives grown in the Peloponnese in south­ern Greece.

“This suc­cess is the result of our hard work, ded­i­ca­tion and pas­sion,” she added. ​“Contrary to pre­vail­ing mod­ern prac­tices, we have invested in our tra­di­tional olive groves to ensure a fully sus­tain­able oper­a­tion, both envi­ron­men­tally and socially. We believe the best achieve­ments for our pre­mium EVOOs are yet to come.”

Mar. 21 17:11 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

Giovanni Petrazzuoli, owner of the Petrazzuoli Olive Farm located in Ruviano, just a short dis­tance from Naples, Italy, is cel­e­brat­ing another tri­umph with a Gold Award for his FontanaLupo medium blend at the NYIOOC.

This marks the fifth con­sec­u­tive time that the blend has secured the olive oil indus­try’s most cov­eted award.

“I am sin­cerely hon­ored to receive this pres­ti­gious Gold Award for the fifth con­sec­u­tive year,” Giovanni Petrazzuoli told Olive Oil Times.
​“This recog­ni­tion goes beyond my per­sonal suc­cess. It is a trib­ute to the legacy and ded­i­ca­tion of my par­ents and the entire Petrazzuoli Olive Farm in Ruviano,” he said.

“I grew up in this small house, learn­ing from my par­ents the deep value of the land and com­mit­ment. This vic­tory is the result of years of hard work, pas­sion, and a con­stant com­mit­ment to excel­lence,” Petrazzuoli told us. ​“I ded­i­cate this award to my par­ents, who have always taught me to believe in qual­ity and the impor­tance of tak­ing care of every sin­gle detail, and to my wife and daugh­ters who sup­port me in run­ning this busi­ness.”

Mar. 21 17:04 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

“This is our first time at the World Olive Oil Competition and the out­come could not be bet­ter. Let me tell you, here we are all thrilled,” Tommaso Fiore, owner of the fam­ily com­pany located in Puglia, in south­ern Italy, told Olive Oil Times when he was noti­fied that his Infiore Coratina mono­va­ri­etal won a Gold Award in its debut.

“In a sea­son that has­n’t been the eas­i­est, we’ve tried to per­form our work in the field and in the mill to the best of our abil­i­ties. We’ve put in a lot of effort to main­tain the high qual­ity stan­dard that dis­tin­guishes us,” Fiore told us.

“Recognitions, when they come, give us a mea­sure of the qual­ity of the work done and that makes us happy and proud. They also help us find moti­va­tion to always do bet­ter,” he added. ​“This one, in par­tic­u­lar, makes us espe­cially proud, because we look at the North American mar­ket with inter­est, and we are truly happy to be part of this mag­nif­i­cent show­case, which we have so often viewed as spec­ta­tors.”

Mar. 21 23:12 UTC

Lisa Anderson report­ing from Cape Town

“We are over the moon thrilled to finally accom­plish back-to-back yearly wins — plus score big on both blends this year!” Californian pro­ducer The Partridge Family Olive Company posted on Facebook.

The reac­tion came as the pro­ducer earned awards for medium-inten­sity blends, after what it called an ​“epic” har­vest.

The fam­ily-owned and oper­ated com­pany cred­ited hard work, together, great col­lab­o­ra­tion with their mas­ter miller for the achieve­ment.

“All the sup­port from friends and cus­tomers makes this worth it all,” the team of the farm-to-table com­pany shared in their post.

Mar. 20 21:36 UTC

Lisa Anderson report­ing from Cape Town

“We are cel­e­brat­ing our two Gold Medals from the largest and most pres­ti­gious olive oil com­pe­ti­tion in the world,” the team at Rancho Azul y Oro Olive Farm from California wrote on their Facebook page.

“Our 2023 Estate EVOO and Arbequina EVOO now rank as two of the World’s Best Olive Oils,” they added. The company’s vic­tory came after what it described as ​“a bit of nail bit­ing” over some har­vest and blend­ing deci­sions.

“This har­vest was spe­cial because of all of our friends and fam­ily who were together to help us. We will always remem­ber it for that. The wins make it all the more spe­cial. Truly grate­ful,” the com­pany wrote.

Mar. 20 20:45 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

With a stun­ning five Gold Awards at the 2024 NYIOOC, California pro­ducer San Miguel Olive Farm is now the sec­ond-most awarded American pro­ducer, accord­ing to the World Olive OIl Ranking, which is updated in real-time as the com­pe­ti­tion results progress.

At press time, with 26 awards since 2018, the com­pany ranks fifth world­wide in all-time wins, out of thou­sands of con­tend­ing pro­duc­ers.

“Having never farmed, we just jumped in with­out look­ing back,” Myrna Meisler told Olive OIl Times in a recent inter­view. ​“We made deci­sions which dif­fered from oth­ers but ones we have kept all these years. We only hand-har­vest, are pes­ti­cide-free, farm nat­u­rally, and all is done with care. A lot of love has gone into what we do.”

Mar. 20 20:08 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

Donika Olive Oil is part of a new gen­er­a­tion of Albanian pro­duc­ers seek­ing to pro­mote qual­ity over quan­tity in a coun­try where vir­tu­ally every­one knows an olive farmer.

Its founders are now cel­e­brat­ing a Silver Award for the company’s debut entry to the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition – an organic medium-inten­sity Kalinjot.

“From the moment we started our early-har­vest pro­duc­tion, we felt like we had some­thing truly spe­cial with our olive oil,” founder Bianti Danaj said. ​“Winning a medal at the NYIOOC just reaf­firms all our beliefs about our oil, and we’re so thrilled to have it rec­og­nized by the best of the best.”

Due to high pro­duc­tion costs in Albania, Donika Olive Oil exports the major­ity of its pro­duc­tion with a spe­cific focus on restau­rants, retail­ers, and dis­trib­u­tors in the United States.

“Winning this award… helps solid­ify our rep­u­ta­tion for pro­duc­ing excep­tional olive oil, which we believe will attract more cus­tomers,” Danaj said.

“We also hope to shine a light on our pre­cious Kalinjot olive vari­ety, which can­not be found any­where in the world but Albania and holds a unique story and sig­nif­i­cance to our cul­ture,” he added.

Mar. 20 17:10 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

On the Spanish island of Mallorca, the team of pro­duc­ers behind peren­nial World Competition win­ner Oli de Santanyi are get­ting ready to cel­e­brate.

“This is our fourth Gold Award at the most pres­ti­gious olive oil com­pe­ti­tion,” founder Dirk Müller-Busch said. ​“It is won­der­ful news and great con­fir­ma­tion of our work in the olive grove and oil mill. The entire team is very moti­vated, and there will undoubt­edly be a spe­cial cel­e­bra­tion.”

The lack of rain this year on the Mediterranean island resulted in a poor har­vest. Still, Müller-Busch said the team man­aged to get the best out of its three vari­eties: Arbequina, Empetre and Pical.

“The oil from the new har­vest is intensely per­fumed, with com­plex fla­vors and won­der­fully bal­anced,” he said, adding that lab results showed the EVOO boasts a high polyphe­nol count.

“We will inte­grate this great suc­cess into our adver­tis­ing activ­i­ties this year,” Müller-Busch said. ​“The pres­ti­gious award gen­er­ates recog­ni­tion and trust in our brand.”

Mar. 20 17:05 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

A farm­ing com­pany that cul­ti­vates olive trees in the pic­turesque Gargano area of north­ern Puglia, Italy, secured both a Gold Award and a Silver Award dur­ing its debut at the NYIOOC.

Aj Vezendy, owner of the Mariella & Grace com­pany, is cel­e­brat­ing.

“I am very excited and grate­ful this morn­ing! It is very spe­cial because his­tor­i­cally my family’s region of Gargano and the town of Vieste have had lit­tle expo­sure to the USA,” Vezendy told Olive Oil Times.

Vieste is the west­ern­most tip of a region fac­ing the Adriatic Sea and known for its extra­or­di­nary nat­ural beau­ties, cul­mi­nat­ing in the Gargano National Park and the ancient Foresta Umbra. There, charm­ing trees and peaks sur­rounded by lime­stone cliffs, beaches, and a crys­tal-clear sea cre­ate breath­tak­ing land­scapes.

“These Awards can be a won­der­ful intro­duc­tion, and they are a tes­ta­ment to all of the ded­i­cated farm­ers and arti­sans of Vieste-Gargano,” Vezendy said.

Mar. 20 16:57 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

L’Olio Bio, the organic extra vir­gin olive oil crafted by Pometti in Tuscany, has once again earned a Gold Award at the NYIOOC.

“We are extremely happy and excited about this result. This is the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year we have reached this level, and for us, it rep­re­sents the cul­mi­na­tion of a year of sac­ri­fices,” Luca Perotti, gen­eral man­ager of Azienda Pometti, told Olive Oil Times.

“Receiving this award allows us to share with the American pub­lic and beyond how much we strive for excel­lence,” he noted. ​“The help that nature has given us in the face of an inno­v­a­tive agri­cul­tural sys­tem that com­bines sus­tain­abil­ity with sci­en­tific research is unique,” he added. ​“Thank to Nature and to all peo­ple who col­lab­o­rate to achieve this goal.”

L’Olio Bio is a medium organic EVOO blend from Leccino, Moraiolo and Pendolino vari­eties.

Mar. 20 12:22 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

DiMolfetta Frantoiani emerged vic­to­ri­ous at the 2024 New York World Olive Oil Competition, receiv­ing a Gold Award for their Coratina mono­va­ri­etal.

Crafted in the heart of Puglia, the south­ern Italian region famed for its mil­lions of olive trees, DiMolfetta EVOO clinched the Gold in New York for the third con­sec­u­tive time.

“We’re very pleased because, in this his­tor­i­cal moment, our prod­uct is going through a com­plex period, and hav­ing these pres­ti­gious awards helps us con­firm with our clients that our focus on prod­uct qual­ity is impor­tant,” Lucia Di Molfetta, co-owner of the fam­ily com­pany, told Olive Oil Times.

“Sustainability, qual­ity, and respect for our land have always been our core busi­ness val­ues guid­ing our work”, Di Molfetta added.
Coratina is rec­og­nized as a high-qual­ity, highly pro­duc­tive vari­ety, renowned for its resilience, its abil­ity to with­stand drought, and resist attacks from var­i­ous pathogens.

Mar. 20 12:11 UTC

Ofeoritse Daibo report­ing from Paris

Rastrello, made from Leccino, Moraiolo, Frantoio, Borsciona and Pendolino olives, has won a Silver Award hav­ing faced some seri­ous chal­lenges.

“We are very grate­ful to be receiv­ing an award,” owner Christiane Wassmann said when receiv­ing news of the award. ​“Especially since we had a VERY chal­leng­ing year in our area of Lake Trasimeno, Umbria, mainly due to tor­ren­tial rains in May of 2023 and then an extremely hot sum­mer. We now only com­pete annu­ally in NYIOOC, as it is the inter­na­tional award that we mostly iden­tify with.”

Mar. 20 12:13 UTC

Paolo DeAndreis report­ing from Rome

The Italian pro­ducer Agraria Del Garda is cel­e­brat­ing its 2024 Gold Award vic­tory for Uliva.

The dis­tinc­tive fla­vors of Uliva are a direct reflec­tion of the Casaliva cul­ti­var, an olive vari­ety that thrives on the hills sur­round­ing Lake Garda in north­ern Italy.

“The award fills us with sat­is­fac­tion and, above all, con­firms that the path we have taken to main­tain, and pos­si­bly improve, the qual­ity stan­dards of our prod­ucts is the right one,” Furio Batterini, who leads Agraria’s tech­ni­cal unit, told Olive Oil Times.

“We have expe­ri­enced a suc­ces­sion of absolutely pos­i­tive years and oth­ers that were extremely dif­fi­cult in recent years. Be it cli­mate change or else, they were always dif­fer­ent but have been cor­rectly inter­preted,” he added.

“Indeed, the con­sis­tent qual­ity, cer­ti­fied by the NYIOOC, sig­ni­fies that the ter­ri­tory, the olive vari­eties, and the capa­bil­ity in cul­ti­va­tion in the olive grove and pro­cess­ing in the mill are man­aged in the best way,” Batterini said.

Mar. 19 21:50 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

After earn­ing a Silver Award in his debut entry to the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition last year, Pura Grove chief exec­u­tive Tim Bui was thrilled to learn about his Gold Award this morn­ing.

“We are so excited to win this year again,” the Southern California pro­ducer said. ​“It’s been a chal­leng­ing learn­ing curve and we have improved over the past three years.”

Bui is an organic olive oil evan­ge­list, prov­ing that going the extra mile pays div­i­dends. ​“The team worked tire­lessly and metic­u­lously fol­lowed organic farm­ing pro­to­cols this past year,” he said. ​“We blended our own organic com­post… a pro­pri­etary blend of bioac­tive and organic soils, pro­bi­otics, min­er­als, and locally sourced organic mat­ter that was set to age over many months.”

Bui applauded the efforts of his team, who climbed the De Luz hills each day over the course of three months to prune the trees, apply organic com­post and opti­mize the irri­ga­tion. ​“All this con­tributed to a bet­ter taste pro­file with increased polyphe­nol con­tent in each drop of our extra vir­gin olive oil,” he said.

Mar. 19 20:57 UTC

Nedjeljko Jusup report­ing from Zadar, Croatia

The first two Gold Awards for Croatia at the world’s pre­em­i­nent olive oil qual­ity con­test were won by Ante Vulin (69) and Tomislav Čudina (45), olive grow­ers from Pakoštan.

“This is the dream of dreams,” Vulin said when receiv­ing news of the award. ​“We are glad to con­tribute to the suc­cess of our coun­try.”

This is Vulin’s third award in a row in New York. ​“This means the most to me and my fam­ily. Confirmation of con­ti­nu­ity of qual­ity,” he told us.

Together with mem­bers of his fam­ily, Vulin cul­ti­vates around 1,000 olive trees at sev­eral loca­tions in Pakoštani, a pic­turesque Dalmatian town in the cen­ter of the Adriatic coast with a unique posi­tion between the sea and Lake Vrana, the largest lake in Croatia.

Vulin’s gold medal was awarded to his Santa Justina brand, a fruity and mod­er­ately spicy oil made from the autochtho­nous Oblica and Drobnica vari­eties.

This is the sec­ond prize in a row in New York for the younger Pakoštan lau­re­ate, Tomislav Čudina. His award-win­ning Olea Viola is an intense extra vir­gin olive oil with green fruiti­ness, medium spici­ness and mild bit­ter­ness. It is made from Oblica, Pendolino and Leccino vari­eties.

“I picked when the fruits were opti­mally ripe and com­pletely healthy,” said Tomislav. ​“This suc­cess means a lot to me, it moti­vates me to con­tinue to engage in olive grow­ing even more seri­ously.”

He inher­ited his love for olives from his grand­fa­ther Blaž and gave the name of his fam­ily busi­ness, OPG Ćelin, to his fam­ily nick­name. After he inher­ited the first 30 olive trees from Blaž, he con­tin­ued to buy land and plant olive trees. Now there are about 320 of them, and his goal is to reach 1,000.

His award-win­ning Olea Viola blend was named after his grand­mother, Viola, who raised him. He never met his father, and his mother died when he was 10 years old.

“Olive oil nour­ished me. Even as a boy, I liked to dip bread in olive oil, and since we did­n’t have enough, my grand­mother added soy oil,” Tomislav recalled. He also remem­bers how he told his grand­mother: ​“When I grow up, I will plant so many olive trees that we will all be able to bathe in olive oil.”

Mar. 19 18:30 UTC

Costas Vassilopoulos report­ing from Athens

AMG Karabelas from Ancient Olympia in west­ern Peloponnese has paved the way for Greek pro­duc­ers at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, win­ning three awards (two Gold and one Silver) on the first day results are being unveiled.

“We are so happy to win for a third con­sec­u­tive year at the pres­ti­gious NYIOOC,” co-owner Alexis Karabelas told Olive Oil Times.

“Our pre­mium line of extra vir­gins, Laurel & Flame Fresh from Tsabidoelia olives and PGi from Koroneiki olives, received Gold Awards. We are also delighted because the Myths of Ancient Olympia, an olive oil we sub­mit­ted to the NYIOOC for the first time, won a Silver Award in the com­pe­ti­tion.”

Karabelas also said that the adverse cli­matic con­di­tions through­out the year, which brought rains dur­ing the flow­er­ing of the trees and warm weather at har­vest time, impacted the year’s crop.

“We had to curry out fre­quent tests to achieve the desired results,” he said. ​“Having done it this year, we believe we will also be able to win in the years to come.”

Mar. 19 18:28 UTC

Daniel Dawson report­ing from Montevideo

The 750 fam­i­lies behind La Sociedad Cooperativa Olivarera de Valdepeñas (Colival) are cel­e­brat­ing once again after earn­ing a Gold Award for their Arbequina mono­va­ri­etal.

“Every time our team receives recog­ni­tion, they appre­ci­ate it since it is the reward for a whole year’s work on the part of the farmer, the effort we put into our oil mill to make or at least try to get the best pos­si­ble qual­ity to give to the con­sumer,” spokes­woman Eva Díaz said.

The Castilla-La Mancha-based coop­er­a­tive over­came drought and unusu­ally high tem­per­a­tures dur­ing the October har­vest to yield its award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oil, sac­ri­fic­ing qual­ity for quan­tity.

“The impact of win­ning these awards is con­verted into a mar­ket­ing and sales strat­egy in North America,” Díaz said. ​“NYIOOC awards are brand posi­tion­ing.”

Mar. 19 18:22 UTC

Ofeoritse Daibo report­ing from Paris

Domaine Gerbaud’s blend of the local Provençal vari­eties Aglandau, Salonenque and Grossane, earned a Gold Award at this year’s NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

“Marvellous! We can­not stop smil­ing,” Louisa Sherman, pro­ducer of Domaine Gerbaud, told Olive Oil Times.

“After being stymied by the Covid pan­demic, we retreated from par­tic­i­pat­ing in com­pe­ti­tions and focused on some seri­ous tree restruc­tur­ing whilst our daugh­ter led a rebrand­ing exer­cise. We are thrilled with this Gold Award after our long-time absence,” she said.

“During the past five years, we have suf­fered increas­ing drought and intense peri­ods of heat with the last two years being the worst. Production costs keep on ris­ing, par­tic­u­larly French labour costs. Despite this, the mar­ket still does­n’t offer higher, fairer prices for pro­duc­ers, and con­sumers are still largely igno­rant of the ben­e­fits (taste and health­wise) of high qual­ity EVOO,” Sherman said.

“Winning a medal at the NYIOOC is hugely encour­ag­ing, and gives us a sig­nif­i­cant mar­ket­ing boost, lead­ing to greater brand aware­ness and trust,” she told us. ​“It improves our lever­age when approach­ing poten­tial stock­ists and con­sumers and rep­re­sents a vote of con­fi­dence from trusted sources, enabling us to stand out from com­peti­tors. Of course it is also hugely grat­i­fy­ing for the team to win in an inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tion after putting in so much hard work dur­ing the year.”

Mar. 19 11:09 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

Organizers said 40 award win­ners will be announced daily from 9:00 AM until 10:00 AM in New York (13:00 – 14:00 UTC) until all entries have been ana­lyzed. Winning brands will roll out approx­i­mately 90 sec­onds apart as each result is cer­ti­fied by the com­pe­ti­tion pres­i­dent.

This year’s first results come one week ear­lier than in 2023, allow­ing pro­duc­ers to ben­e­fit from their achieve­ments even sooner in their cam­paigns. Southern Hemisphere results will begin rolling out in September.

Mar. 13 12:14 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

The win­ning brands will be unveiled on the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils in spe­cial sec­tions of Olive Oil Times and the World Olive Oil Rankings por­tal of his­tor­i­cal data and stand­ings span­ning the twelve edi­tions of the con­test.

Mar. 13 12:08 UTC

OOT Staff report­ing from New York

Organizers of the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition said the first results of the 2024 edi­tion will be released Tuesday, March 19 at 9:00 AM New York time (13:00 UTC) and con­tinue until every sub­mit­ted entry has been judged and cer­ti­fied in April.

This is a devel­op­ing story. Check back for updates. (Updated Apr. 24, 2024 01:20 UTC)

More updates

Continuous cov­er­age of the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition

• 2024 World Olive Oil Competition cov­er­age on OOT
• #NYIOOC social feed
• Live stream of the results
• Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils
• World Olive Oil Rankings
• News arti­cles in the Official Guide
• NYIOOC Help Center and Press Room