Record Year for Turkish Olive Oils at World Competition

Turkish pro­duc­ers had their best year yet at the 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, earn­ing 28 awards.

Producers from the world’s fifth-largest olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­try won a record-high 18 Gold Awards – as many Turkish Golds as in the four pre­vi­ous con­tests com­bined – and 10 Silver Awards.

The country’s two biggest win­ners, the Granpa and Mavras Zeytincilik brands, were among those that entered the com­pe­ti­tion for the first time.

Müge Aşkın is the sales man­ager of the Tokuç Group, which pro­duces Granpa olive oils. The Istanbul-based com­pany earned two Gold Awards for medium Trilye oils and a Silver for a del­i­cate Trilye.

Aşkın told Olive Oil Times that Granpa started pro­duc­ing olive oil in 2018, hav­ing saved olive trees from the country’s min­ing areas and moved them to their 17,000-tree olive grove.

She said it was evi­dent that Turkish pro­duc­ers were becom­ing increas­ingly moti­vated to par­tic­i­pate in inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions. Aşkın added that since news of Granpa’s excel­lent results at the NYIOOC had got­ten out, the com­pany has received calls from exist­ing and prospec­tive cus­tomers.

“The NYIOOC will be our top pri­or­ity next year,” she said.

The other big win­ner this year was the Mavras Olive Oil Company, which won two Golds and one Silver Award for their Edremit oils.

“This is the first time we are tak­ing part in the NYIOOC,” CEO Melike As told Olive Oil Times. ​“Of course, we are very happy to win two Golds and one Silver Award for olive oils that were extracted from our dif­fer­ent groves.”

She attrib­uted the vic­tory to their hands-on man­age­ment dur­ing the pro­duc­tion process and the com­pa­ny’s new state-of-the-art mill, sit­u­ated near the groves on the slopes of Mount İda.

Several hun­dred miles south of Mount İda, Gizem Çetintürk, the co-owner of Eliada Gida Tarim Kozmetik Ithalat Ihracat, was yet another first-time entrant cel­e­brat­ing a big win at the NYIOOC.

She said receiv­ing a Silver Award for the com­pa­ny’s del­i­cate Arbosana in its first year of pro­duc­tion was very mean­ing­ful for the fledg­ling com­pany.

“It’s our first oil in the first year of pro­duc­tion, so it’s a great feel­ing to be awarded at the NYIOOC and a great start that shows us we are going in the right direc­tion,” Çetintürk told Olive Oil Times.

She added that Eliada’s goal is to be a sought-after and trusted brand for health-con­scious con­sumers and win­ning awards from the NYIOOC was a big step in the right direc­tion for them.

Çetintürk attrib­uted the company’s vic­tory to their pas­sion and deter­mi­na­tion.

Fellow Aegean area pro­duc­ers, Genius Olive Oil were also among the first time entrants and win­ners at the 2020 NYIOOC. The Manisa-based com­pany earned a Gold Award for its medium Arbequina.

Company co-owner Tarkan Karakaya told Olive Oil Times that he was very proud of being awarded at the NYIOOC, adding that their pur­suit of per­fec­tion had brought them this great suc­cess.

Meanwhile, Hiç founder Duygu Elakdar cred­ited her com­pa­ny’s Silver Award-win­ning organic medium Ayvalik to the con­sis­tency of the product’s fla­vor as well as to their sin­gle-estate organic olive for­est. She added that invest­ing in a new mill had allowed the com­pany to har­vest and trans­form their olives more quickly, bet­ter pre­serv­ing their aro­mas and fla­vors.

“We are proud to be the pio­neers of our region by achiev­ing this award,” Elakdar said. ​“It means a lot because we are the biggest organic-cer­ti­fied olive for­est in Urla.”

Merve Doran, the owner of the another vic­to­ri­ous south­west­ern pro­ducer, Oleamea, said her com­pany was also very proud of receiv­ing a Gold and a Silver Award for their organic medium Memeciks at the com­pe­ti­tion.

“It is an honor to be one of the many win­ning pro­duc­ers from Turkey, and we are excited to see the grow­ing recog­ni­tion of Turkish olive oil on the world stage,” Doran said.

“Although envi­ron­men­tal and cur­rent global con­di­tions con­tinue to pose sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, we con­tinue to strive for con­tin­u­ous qual­ity improve­ment and adapt our model where pos­si­ble,” she added.

Oleamea sources their olives from organic pro­duc­ers in the country’s Aegean region.

Just south of the Aegean region, in Fethiye, the pro­ducer of the Sidyma brand earned a Gold Award for their medium blend.

“We are very proud of hav­ing received a Gold Award at the NYIOOC this year,” the company’s man­ag­ing direc­tor Sergül Yücekök said. ​“We have worked tire­lessly to achieve a truly unique olive oil and are delighted to be shar­ing our achieve­ment with our cus­tomers and col­leagues.

Yücekök added that part of what makes Sidyma stand out is its extra­or­di­nar­ily high lev­els of polyphe­nols and said he believes that the com­pa­ny’s suc­cess comes from the research and know-how that is put into their olive oil pro­duc­tion.