2026 NYIOOC Results Show Shifting Patterns in Global Olive Oil Quality

Summary

The 2026 Northern Hemisphere edi­tion of the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition saw chal­leng­ing con­di­tions, with pro­duc­ers fac­ing weather extremes, mar­ket volatil­ity, ris­ing pro­duc­tion costs, and polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity. Producers from 29 coun­tries entered 1,021 olive oils, with Italy lead­ing the com­pe­ti­tion with 166 awards, fol­lowed by Croatia, Greece, the United States, and Spain. The com­pe­ti­tion also high­lighted the rise of organic olive oil, the impor­tance of vari­etal iden­tity, and the suc­cess of small and medium oper­a­tions in pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity olive oil.

The results are in. The 2026 Northern Hemisphere edi­tion of the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition unfolded under chal­leng­ing con­di­tions, with pro­duc­ers fac­ing weather extremes, mar­ket volatil­ity, ris­ing pro­duc­tion costs and polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity.

Producers from 29 coun­tries entered 1,021 olive oils in the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity con­test. Evaluated by mul­ti­ple inter­na­tional blind-tast­ing pan­els, the entries earned 464 Gold Awards and 234 Silver Awards.

Italy again led the com­pe­ti­tion with 166 awards. Croatia fol­lowed with 128, includ­ing 103 Gold Awards and 25 Silver Awards, con­firm­ing its place among the strongest-per­form­ing coun­tries at this year’s con­test.

Greece earned 106 awards, while the United States fin­ished with 95 and Spain with 85. Together, the five coun­tries accounted for most of the awards in the 2026 Northern Hemisphere edi­tion.

Croatia’s total marked another high point for a coun­try that has steadily expanded its pres­ence at the NYIOOC, build­ing on sev­eral years of strong results from mostly small and fam­ily-run pro­duc­ers.

The gap points to a dif­fer­ent model: a smaller, more selec­tive pool of pro­duc­ers enter­ing oils already posi­tioned at the high­est end of the qual­ity spec­trum.

“To see our small fam­ily hold­ing rec­og­nized on a global stage amongst one thou­sand entries is a tes­ta­ment to the fact that when tra­di­tion meets qual­ity, the results are world-class,” said Sergio Frančula, owner of OPG Provaža in Croatia.

Other Balkan pro­duc­ers also deliv­ered notable results. Bosnia and Herzegovina earned 16 awards, 15 of them Gold, fol­low­ing 11 awards in 2025, includ­ing six Gold Awards.

Montenegro reached a record five awards, its high­est total ever, reflect­ing the country’s grow­ing focus on qual­ity and the ris­ing recog­ni­tion of its native cul­ti­vars.

A sea­son described as the worst in decades, marked by pest infes­ta­tions, labor short­ages and late rains, still yielded a record 106 awards for Greek pro­duc­ers.

One stood above the rest. With ten Gold Awards, the most ever won by a sin­gle pro­ducer in one year, The Master Miller cap­tured the top spot in the Olive Oil Times World Rankings. The Pyrgos-based com­pany has now accu­mu­lated 54 awards since 2015, the most dec­o­rated record in the competition’s his­tory.

Conditions in Greece gave lit­tle indi­ca­tion that such a result was com­ing, as many pro­duc­ers in the region told Olive Oil Times.

“This sea­son required patience,” said Maria Papadakis, founder of Laconic Foods. ​“Weather pat­terns shifted. Timing mat­tered more than ever. We har­vested delib­er­ately, press­ing early to pre­serve struc­ture and char­ac­ter.”

Diamantis Pierrakos, owner of Laconiko, described the sea­son as marked by ​“relent­less and unfor­giv­ing weather” as his com­pany added new awards to its NYIOOC record.

U.S. pro­duc­ers, with 95 awards in 2026, faced their own dif­fi­cul­ties.

“This har­vest was chal­leng­ing because it was late,” said Brooke Hazen, founder of Gold Ridge Organic Farms. ​“This did not stop me from har­vest­ing at the per­fect time for all the vari­eties, extend­ing our sea­son into late fall and early win­ter.”

“I want to give thanks to such a gifted team, who all worked together so seam­lessly and coura­geously to brave the wind, rain and frost, to press quickly and at the high­est cal­iber,” Hazen added.

Awards for pro­duc­ers in Algeria and Iran again showed how inno­va­tion paired with tra­di­tion is expand­ing high-qual­ity pro­duc­tion in regions that until recently had remained out­side the competition’s upper tier.

The 2026 results also reflected the con­tin­ued rise of organic olive oil. Producers sub­mit­ted 375 organic entries, which earned 262 awards, a 70 per­cent suc­cess rate nearly iden­ti­cal to the 71 per­cent recorded by non-organic oils.

Conventional oils still dom­i­nated in vol­ume and total awards. However, the steady rise in organic sub­mis­sions over the past decade points to a struc­tural shift rather than a tem­po­rary trend.

The data also under­scored the grow­ing impor­tance of vari­etal iden­tity. Monovarietals accounted for most entries and achieved a higher suc­cess rate than blends, at 78 per­cent ver­sus 63 per­cent.

The gap rein­forces a trend that has been build­ing for years, with trace­abil­ity increas­ingly aligned with per­cep­tions of top qual­ity.

The results again high­lighted how excel­lence in olive oil is not the province of large pro­duc­ers alone. Small and medium oper­a­tions reg­u­larly com­peted at the high­est level, often stand­ing along­side far larger com­pa­nies.

Over mul­ti­ple years, the Olive Oil Times World Ranking sug­gests that sus­tain­ing that level, how­ever, appears more closely linked to struc­ture, capac­ity and con­sis­tency across har­vests.

Many Gold and Silver Award win­ners described their NYIOOC recog­ni­tion as a mile­stone reached after years of refin­ing their craft.

“We are beyond hon­ored and thrilled to win the Gold Award,” said Denis Stefanic of OPG Anđelo Štefanić. ​“We are hon­ored to receive a Silver Award, espe­cially since it is our first par­tic­i­pa­tion in the con­test,” added George Fouskarinis of Elean.

For oth­ers, the NYIOOC rep­re­sents not only recog­ni­tion but also a shared space among pro­duc­ers pur­su­ing the same stan­dard across very dif­fer­ent regions.

“We are very pleased to share the spot­light this year with so many great pro­duc­ers from around the world,” said Giorgio Colletti of Fratelli Colletti. ​“Lean year num­ber two — hard work and pas­sion keep us on track,” added Richard and Myma of San Miguel Olive Farm.

That sense of con­ti­nu­ity is per­haps best cap­tured by those who have been part of the com­pe­ti­tion longest.

“Today, we cel­e­brate 10 years of Olmais, exactly where it all began: with a Gold Medal at the NYIOOC,” said Julio Gomes Alves, gen­eral man­ager of Quinta dos Olmais. ​“Looking back at 2016, we entered our very first batch with noth­ing but high hopes and laser-printed labels. That first Gold gave us the courage to go all in. A decade later, the labels have changed, but our com­mit­ment remains as golden as ever.”