S. American Producers Celebrate NYIOOC Wins

South American olive oil pro­duc­ers enjoyed their most suc­cess­ful year at the 2018 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC), bring­ing home 10 awards, includ­ing two for Best in Class.

Producers from four coun­tries touted the suc­cess as proof of the high qual­ity of South American extra vir­gin olive oil.

“The NYIOOC is a dif­fi­cult con­test for some oils from the south­ern hemi­sphere” due to a later har­vest than usual, said Diego Livingstone, of Chilean pro­ducer Agricola Pobeña, which won two Gold Awards and one Silver Award this year.
See Also:The World’s Best Olive Oils
On two pre­vi­ous occa­sions, South American oils won 10 awards, but this year they did so while sub­mit­ting the fewest entries since the com­pe­ti­tion began in 2014.

Of the four South American coun­tries that were rep­re­sented in the com­pe­ti­tion, Brazil was the only one that defied this down­ward trend in par­tic­i­pa­tion. Brazilian pro­duc­ers sub­mit­ted more entries and won more awards than in the pre­vi­ous four years, com­bined.

Brazilian pro­duc­ers were also the biggest win­ners this year, bring­ing home five of the 10 awards, includ­ing one Best in Class and two Golds.

“We felt very happy, dou­bly happy, in fact, this year because [our two Gold awards] show us and our cus­tomers that we are doing it right, mak­ing oil of the high­est qual­ity pos­si­ble every year and improv­ing,” said Rafael Marchetti of Prosperato, which received one Gold award for its Exclusivo Koroneiki and the other for its Exclusivo Picual.

“As our prod­uct is still really new in our mar­ket, it is impor­tant to receive these awards as proof of our seri­ous work and com­mit­ment to qual­ity.”

Brazil is the sec­ond fastest grow­ing mar­ket for olive oil in the world. According to the International Olive Oil Council, con­sump­tion grew by 19 per­cent last year and is expected to con­tinue grow­ing this year. As a result, Marchetti believes that Brazilian pro­duc­ers can­not meet all of this demand, but can com­pete to have the high­est qual­ity prod­ucts on the mar­ket.

“Even the best extra vir­gin olive oils from around the world can­not get to Brazil as fresh as ones pro­duced here,” he said.

“These two Gold Awards for our olive oils only fur­ther con­firm what we are say­ing. They trans­late into a form of con­fi­dence for our cus­tomers, who know that they are con­sum­ing one of the best olive oils in the world.”

Uruguayan pro­ducer, O’33, received the other Best in Class award for their robust blend, Coupage Blanc. Uruguay has been the most suc­cess­ful South American coun­try at the com­pe­ti­tion, receiv­ing 17 awards since 2014 and record­ing a nearly 50 per­cent suc­cess rate. True to form, this year Uruguayan pro­duc­ers sub­mit­ted two entries and received one award.

O’33 pre­vi­ously won a Gold award in 2015 and Natalia Welker said this Best in Class award demon­strates that Uruguayan pro­duc­ers are con­tin­u­ing to improve on qual­ity.

“The truth is that we are very happy since it takes a lot of work to achieve high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil,” she said.

“I think the impact is pos­i­tive since it is a recog­ni­tion that comes from experts out­side of the com­pany, some­thing that our cus­tomers value very much. Uruguay is already inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized for its excel­lent extra vir­gin olive oil, but this award, in par­tic­u­lar, con­tin­ues to con­sol­i­date the path traced by pro­duc­ers in Uruguay.”

Livingstone echoed these sen­ti­ments. Agricola Pobeña’s three awards this year were the most any Chilean pro­ducer has received since 2015. They received gold awards for two del­i­cate blends as well as Silver for their medium Picual.

He said that the New York awards are an endorse­ment of the pro­duc­tion meth­ods and tech­niques of Agricola Pobeña and the Chilean olive oil com­mu­nity: an indi­ca­tion that pro­duc­ers are mov­ing along the cor­rect path.

“Each time we receive these prizes, it is a proud moment for us,” he said. ​“It’s like win­ning a marathon after just hav­ing run a pre­vi­ous one.”