World's Best Extra Virgin Olive Oils Unveiled

Summary

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition announced award-win­ning brands from the Northern Hemisphere divi­sion, with nearly 1,100 entries from 23 coun­tries par­tic­i­pat­ing, and pro­duc­ers fac­ing chal­lenges such as heat­waves, droughts, and labor short­ages to craft excep­tional prod­ucts. Producers from Italy, Spain, Croatia, Greece, the US, and Turkey won the most awards, with lesser-known olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­tries also achiev­ing tri­umphs, show­cas­ing qual­ity from around the world despite var­i­ous obsta­cles.

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition con­cluded its annual roll­out of award-win­ning brands today on the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils.

Nearly 1,100 entries from 23 coun­tries par­tic­i­pated in the Northern Hemisphere divi­sion of the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity con­test. Southern Hemisphere brands will com­pete later this year.

There were 531 Gold Awards and 216 Silver Awards bestowed to pro­duc­ers who over­came a year marked by chal­lenges to craft excep­tional prod­ucts.

Award-win­ning pro­duc­ers cited heat­waves, droughts, labor short­ages and infla­tion as hur­dles in a par­tic­u­larly tough sea­son.

Producers from Italy won 174 awards, fol­lowed by their coun­ter­parts in Spain (106), Croatia (105), Greece (90), the United States (80) and Turkey (74). There were also tri­umphs from lesser-known olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­tries, includ­ing China, Lebanon, Egypt and Algeria.

“Olives are our pas­sion. To receive this kind of recog­ni­tion, we feel that we are doing some­thing good for our cus­tomers, our employ­ees, our com­mu­nity and all the gen­er­a­tions who have ded­i­cated their lives to this fam­ily busi­ness,” said Tommaso Asaro, the owner of Oleificio Asaro dal 1916.

The Sicilian pro­ducer, which recently part­nered with Starbucks for its olive oil-infused line of cof­fee bev­er­ages, earned six awards at the World Competition. Asaro said the 2022 har­vest had been one of the most chal­leng­ing in Sicily.

“From the out­set, tem­per­a­ture extremes reduced flow­er­ing, and a drier-than-usual sum­mer con­tributed to sig­nif­i­cant yield reduc­tions,” he added.

Producers in Spain also over­came a hot and dry sum­mer to craft some of the world’s best extra vir­gin olive oils.

From mas­sive coop­er­a­tives to fam­ily farms, win­ning in New York proved a wel­come relief after a chal­leng­ing sea­son. The 1,500 farm­ers behind the Olivarera de Lucena coop­er­a­tive in Andalusia were no excep­tion.

“We are proud of hav­ing pro­duced one of the best oils,” said Antonio Pozo Nevado, the coop­er­a­tive’s agron­o­mist. ​“This is a great recog­ni­tion of the effort and ded­i­ca­tion used in the selec­tion and pro­duc­tion of this extra vir­gin olive oil.”

“Winning at the NYIOOC is the most impor­tant recog­ni­tion for us,” added Eddy Plasquy, owner of the fam­ily com­pany Del Cetino. ​“Especially for small pro­duc­ers, it is a unique plat­form to demon­strate that seri­ous work pays off. And we are a very small and also a very proud pro­ducer.”

Outside of the world’s most promi­nent olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­tries, resource­ful olive farm­ers from far­ther afield demon­strated that no sin­gle region has a monop­oly on qual­ity.

“A typhoon just before the har­vest caused dam­age to about 900 trees,” Kunisaki QLiVE Garden chief exec­u­tive Masahiro Ohno said. ​“Harvesting and restora­tion work over­lapped and was very dif­fi­cult, but with the coop­er­a­tion of the local com­mu­nity, we were able to com­plete the har­vest safely.”

Despite the typhoon, Ohno was awarded for a medium-inten­sity blend. ​“It’s our first time par­tic­i­pat­ing at the NYIOOC,” he said. ​“We are very hon­ored to receive the Silver Award in the world’s largest olive oil com­pe­ti­tion.”

Ohno and his team were not the only win­ners to over­come a lit­eral storm en route to suc­cess. On the oppo­site side of the world, Georgia’s largest olive oil pro­ducer turned olives from the hur­ri­cane-threat­ened har­vest into award-win­ning oil.

“Hurricane Ian was mak­ing land­fall just as we were prepar­ing to begin har­vest,” said Fresh Press Farms agri­cul­tural and inno­va­tion direc­tor Ciriaco Chavez. ​“We are less than 70 miles (110 kilo­me­ters) from the Gulf of Mexico, so there was the threat that the hurricane’s path could impact our har­vest.”

However, the pro­ducer per­se­vered and earned a Silver Award for its medium blend. ​“As new pro­duc­ers help­ing to pio­neer olive grow­ing in Georgia, we wanted to show that our unique Georgian extra vir­gin olive oils meet or exceed the qual­ity of oil pro­duc­ers in California or other parts of the world,” Chavez said.

While many parts of the olive oil world faced an unprece­dent­edly chal­leng­ing har­vest, pro­duc­ers in Turkey cel­e­brated a water­shed moment by yield­ing a record-shat­ter­ing 380,000 tons of olive oil in the 2022/23 crop year and win­ning a remark­able num­ber of NYIOOC awards.

While many famil­iar faces earned repeat awards, the bumper har­vest allowed many new pro­duc­ers to show­case their hard work and inno­v­a­tive brands.

“As a com­pany that sources from olive trees grown by women in Turkey, this is a tremen­dous oppor­tu­nity to show­case the unique fla­vor and qual­ity of our olive oil and pro­mote gen­der equal­ity in the agri­cul­tural sec­tor,” Rengin Suar agent Sebnem Sener said about the com­pa­ny’s Silver Award.

“Recognition in the NYIOOC opens the door to a new con­ti­nent, and we are very excited to meet the afi­ciona­dos across the Atlantic,” added Zeynep Belger, founder of award-win­ning Zayto.

This is a break­ing news arti­cle. Check back for updates.