Despite the erratic weather and frequent power outages during harvest, producers from South Africa combined to win twelve of the industry's most prestigious quality awards.
Olive oil producers from South Africa are celebrating their second-best showing at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, earning 12 awards (seven Gold and five Silver Awards) from 19 entries.
Entrants from the southernmost African country have established their position in the competition, slowly but steadily improving their ranking among Southern Hemisphere countries.
Although the country is still a relatively small producer compared to other countries below the equator, South Africans are increasingly focused on high-quality extra virgin olive oil: last year, producers earned a record-high 16 awards from 16 entries at the World Competition.
According to the South African Olive Industry Association (SA Olive), 95 percent of the olive oil produced in South Africa each year is classified as extra virgin.
The quality South African olive oil producers have achieved over the years has also caught the attention of local professionals looking for the best oils for their businesses.
“We get artisanal, fantastic products,” said Cape Town chef and restaurateur Christophe Dehosse. “There’s no reason to buy an olive oil that comes from Europe, 10,000 kilometers away.”
See Also:The best extra virgin olive oil from South AfricaThe country’s farmers have also embraced the cultivation of olive trees, making olive farming the fastest-developing agricultural subsector in the country, with a 20 percent annual growth rate.
In the 2024 crop year, which ran roughly from mid-March to early July, farmers and millers in South Africa enjoyed both a bumper olive oil crop of 1.6 million liters (around 1,760 tons) and high-quality fresh oils in most producing regions of the country.
However, the sector had to overcome challenges created by erratic weather and frequent power outages due to collapses in the country’s power grid. This forced producers to carefully design and execute their operations to ensure the proper harvest and milling of the olives.
Located between the historic town of Stellenbosch and Banhoek Valley in the country’s Western Cape region, Tokara Olives braved the unfavorable conditions during harvest to win a Gold Award for its namesake organic medium blend from Italian varieties.
“The Tokara team is very excited, as it was a huge achievement to win a Gold Award at the NYIOOC,” said Gert van Dyk, the company’s operations manager. “It’s a great moment to celebrate success and motivate everyone to keep pushing for excellence in the future.”
Van Dyk noted that Tokara’s road to success was bumpy this year, with weather extremes and a lack of rain impacting the company’s olive oil crop.
“Nature contributed to a couple of extreme challenges during the harvest as we experienced major crop losses due to a severe windstorm early in April, while our normal winter rainfall was absent during harvest,” he said.
“These phenomena contributed to accelerated ripening of our olive crop, forcing our olive mill to process a larger volume of olives per day than normal,” van Dyk added.
Mardouw Investments, another producer based in the Western Cape where 95 percent of the country’s olive oil is produced, repeated its success in last year’s competition, winning another pair of Gold Awards this year.
Mardouw was awarded for its eponymous medium blend from Favolosa and Coratina olives and its monovarietal from Frantoio olives, extending its winning streak in the World Competition.
“The awards mean the world to us,” said general manager Philip King. “We have always believed that we produce world-class extra virgin olive oil, and to be awarded two Gold Awards at such a prestigious competition as NYIOOC again is a massive honor. This also demonstrates our consistency as we have been awarded for six years in a row since 2019.”
The relatively new Favolosa variety, FS17, was initially developed in Italy in the 1980s from the Frantoio cultivar and is considered resistant to the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium. The cultivar’s fruits are medium-sized, wine-red when ripe and have a medium-to-high polyphenol content.
King said that Mardouw is also looking to increase its exports and is planning to use the NYIOOC awards it has received as a new market battering ram.
“We want to grow our export business with a strategic focus on the East Coast of the United States,“ he said. “I am confident that our consistency of performing well in the NYIOOC the past six years will help penetrate our target market.”
For 39-year-old Loyiso Manga, the owner of Ubuntu from the country’s capital, Cape Town, winning an award from the NYIOOC was a life’s dream come true.
“I am excited and proud,” Manga said after receiving a Silver Award for a delicate blend, marketed in a distinctively adorned bottle with traditional African designs.
“This win is for all the unemployed youth and those who desire to follow their dreams,” Manga added. “We have, and we’ve just begun.”
Ubuntu, named after a word made famous by Nelson Mandela that means compassion and kindness, is the first black-owned olive oil company in South Africa.
Passionate about agribusiness and philanthropy, Manga spent two years looking for an olive farm and gave life to his vision by finally founding Ubuntu in 2019.
“Ubuntu extra virgin olive oil is not just a flash in the pan,” he said. “it is the story of a dream come to life through hard work and a focus on the benefits that it will bring to the people it will come into contact with.”
The joy of winning at the NYIOOC has also spread to the nearby Breede River Valley, where Rio Largo Olive Estate was once again named among the world’s best olive oil producers.
“Winning an award at the NYIOOC, the largest international competition for extra virgin olive oils, is a significant achievement worth celebrating,” co-owner Brenda Wilkinson said. “This recognition not only enhances our brand awareness, particularly on a global scale but also serves as a benchmark for our quality compared to industry leaders.”
A multi-time winner at the World Competition, Rio Largo received a Silver Award this year for a medium blend and has won awards in six previous editions of the competition.
“This award affirms our position as a competitive player in the market, inspiring confidence in our products and opening new opportunities for growth,” Wilkinson concluded.
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