'Best Olive Oils Marketplace' Opens to U.S. Vendors

The New York International Olive Oil Competition announced a beta release today of The Best Olive Oils Marketplace, an online por­tal where ven­dors who stock the annual contest’s award-win­ning olive oils can sell directly to con­sumers and retail­ers.

Each day, thou­sands of peo­ple peruse the competition’s guide to the year’s best olive oils and use its new olive oil pair­ing app to match brands with cer­tain foods, but until now there has been no way to buy them. A ​“buy now” but­ton will soon be appear­ing on the pages of the guide. With just a few clicks, con­sumers and retail buy­ers can order the award-win­ners directly from U.S. mer­chants who stock them (inter­na­tional order­ing is com­ing soon).

“We are finally com­ing full-cir­cle,” said NYIOOC pres­i­dent, Curtis Cord. ​“Not only will we iden­tify and pub­li­cize the pro­duc­ers of the world’s best extra vir­gin olive oils, we will be get­ting their extra­or­di­nary prod­ucts into the shops and kitchens where they belong.”

In the first phase of the launch, ven­dors, includ­ing retail­ers and dis­trib­u­tors, are being invited to estab­lish their pro­files on the plat­form and indi­cate any 2015 NYIOOC win­ners they stock in the U.S., avail­able inven­tory and pric­ing.

When the 2016 NYIOOC results are announced on April 14, ven­dors will imme­di­ately be able to select the new win­ners they carry, and the Marketplace will be opened to con­sumers and retail buy­ers.

Shipping options and pay­ments are man­aged directly on the plat­form, and cus­tomers can track their orders door to door. Customer sat­is­fac­tion rat­ings will allow buy­ers to view detailed infor­ma­tion on a ven­dor’s track record.

254 award-win­ning oils from the 2015 NYIOOC are eli­gi­ble to be sold in the Marketplace. This year, more than 800 entries are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the com­pe­ti­tion, mak­ing it by far the largest olive oil qual­ity con­test in the world.

The Best Olive Oils Marketplace will be pro­moted through­out the NYIOOC net­work of web­sites and Olive Oil Times, the most-vis­ited source of olive oil news and infor­ma­tion.

“This orga­ni­za­tion is not in the busi­ness of sell­ing olive oil,” Cord clar­i­fied. ​“We are in the busi­ness of iden­ti­fy­ing and pro­mot­ing the world’s best extra vir­gin olive oils. Helping com­pa­nies who stock award-win­ning oils reach the grow­ing num­ber of us who want the best for our­selves, our fam­i­lies and our cus­tomers lies at the very heart of our mis­sion.”

Retailer, whole­salers and dis­trib­u­tors can sign up on the Best Olive Oils Marketplace web­site.