Two Lebanese Producers Prevail at World Olive Oil Competition

Part of our con­tin­u­ing cov­er­age of the 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Producers from across the Mediterranean basin – the endemic home of the olive tree – once again dom­i­nated the results of the 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Entrants from 14 coun­tries in south­ern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa com­bined to win 465 of the 584 awards.

Among the many Mediterranean win­ners, two Lebanese pro­duc­ers claimed their hard-earned awards.

“It gives us great pride to rep­re­sent the old­est coun­try to ever pro­duce olive oil, Lebanon, and its local cul­ti­var, Souri,” Ibrahim Al Kaakour, the owner of Genco Olive Oil, said.

While there is some dis­agree­ment among archae­ol­o­gists and his­to­ri­ans about where exactly in the east­ern Mediterranean olive oil pro­duc­tion began, there is no dis­put­ing the role the Phoenicians (from what is now Lebanon) played in spread­ing the olive tree through­out the basin.

Traders from the south­ern port of Tyre – one of the old­est con­tin­u­ally inhab­ited cities on earth – were respon­si­ble for bring­ing the tree to Carthage (mod­ern-day Tunisia), the Tuscan coast­line and the rolling hills of Andalusia.

In spite of this promi­nent role in the his­tory and devel­op­ment of olive oil pro­duc­tion, mod­ern-day Lebanon is a minor player in terms of the global olive oil sec­tor. In 2019, the coun­try pro­duced 19,000 tons of olive oil, accord­ing to International Olive Council data, most of which remained in the domes­tic mar­ket.

However, win­ning awards at the world’s most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion does help to raise the pro­file of the his­toric olive oil region and pro­vides some pro­duc­ers with a win­dow of oppor­tu­nity to mar­ket their oils to the rest of the world.

“Our team at Orchards of Laila are all ecsta­tic to know that all our hard work is being rec­og­nized glob­ally at this pres­ti­gious award cer­e­mony,” Al Kaakour said. ​“We are happy to put Lebanon back on the world map after thou­sands of years!”

Orchards of Laila, Genco’s organic robust Souri, earned a Gold Award at the com­pe­ti­tion.

“Souri is a robust cul­ti­var that is more intense on the taste scale rather than the aroma,” Al Kaaakour said. ​“It gives its max­i­mum poten­tial in the early har­vest sea­son, late September to early October.”

“It also rep­re­sents Lebanon and its peo­ple in its resilience,” he added. ​“It can with­stand harsh cli­mates and drought bet­ter than any other cul­ti­var we have come across.”

The har­di­ness of the cul­ti­var aids Al Kaakour and Genco Olive Oil in the company’s main mis­sion: to pro­duce high-qual­ity olive oils using only organic meth­ods.

“Trying to main­tain organic farm­ing meth­ods proves to be the most chal­leng­ing for olive farm­ers,” he said. ​“We tend to be more exposed to dis­ease, espe­cially with the olive fruit fly.”

“However, despite the extra effort, time and cost that organic farm­ing entails, the end prod­uct of a clean top-qual­ity organic olive oil jus­ti­fies all the hard work and makes us all proud,” Al Kaakour added.

Lebanon’s other award-win­ning pro­ducer was Bustan el Zeitoun, which was awarded for the third con­sec­u­tive year at the NYIOOC.

At the 2020 edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion, the south-cen­tral Lebanese pro­ducer earned a Silver Award for its medium Frantoio.

“We feel proud to be win­ners for three con­sec­u­tive years at NYIOOC com­pe­ti­tion,” co-owner Walid Mushantaf said. ​“Professionals in the food indus­try and extra vir­gin olive oil lovers use these results to make their pur­chas­ing choices.”

In 2019, Bustan el Zeitoun pro­duced 20,000 liters of extra vir­gin olive oil from its groves, which sprawl across the ter­raced hills of the Aabra region. Along with Frantoio, Mushantaf grows 11 other Italian vari­eties, includ­ing Maurino, Leccino, Biancolilla, Nocellara and Coratina.

During Lebanon’s bloody 15-year civil war, he left his home­land and stud­ied olive oil pro­duc­tion in Europe. Upon his return to Lebanon, he sought to rebuild some of what had been destroyed dur­ing the war and incor­po­rate mod­ern tech­nol­ogy to his olive oil pro­duc­tion.

However, he admit­ted that get­ting pro­duc­ers to aban­don tra­di­tional meth­ods has been a chal­lenge.

“Lebanon has its own tra­di­tional cul­ti­vars and most oil mills oper­ate with the tra­di­tional stones and means,” Mushantaf said. ​“People here stick to tra­di­tion and some even told me they do not trust the new mill trans­for­ma­tion tech­nolo­gies. With these awards in New York, though, it will be eas­ier to win the trust of some of them.”

Mushantaf said that he had invested heav­ily in a ​“new and inno­v­a­tive” oil mill for the com­ing har­vest­ing sea­son, in order to alle­vi­ate some of the prob­lems that he ran into in 2019.

“We start our har­vest­ing around mid-September when the olives are green in order to obtain good qual­ity oil,” Mushantaf said. ​“During this early period of the sea­son, no nearby olive mills were open, so we drove for two hours each day to process our olives in a mod­ern olive mill dur­ing the same day of har­vest­ing, and this lasted for almost a month.”

Mushantaf added that the new mill should be ready in time for the start of the 2020 har­vest and imag­ines this will improve the chances of Bustan el Zeitoun earn­ing a Gold Award once again at the 2021 NYIOOC.

• Olives: Volume 18 of Crop Production Science in Horticulture