World Olive Oil Competition Southern Division Underway

The analy­ses of extra vir­gin olive oils from seven coun­tries on three con­ti­nents began in the 2024 edi­tion of the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition Southern Hemisphere divi­sion.

Producers from Chile to New Zealand were await­ing their results in the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity con­test, which will be revealed in real-time in the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils and the Olive Oil Times World Ranking.

This year’s awards will be par­tic­u­larly sig­nif­i­cant after many coun­tries in the hemi­sphere expe­ri­enced marked har­vest declines.

A com­bi­na­tion of cli­matic and agro­nomic fac­tors resulted in poor har­vests across South America.

Brazil, whose pro­duc­ers have become increas­ingly suc­cess­ful at the World Competition in recent years, suf­fered a his­tor­i­cally low har­vest after sig­nif­i­cant rain­fall from September to December 2023 dam­aged most of the country’s olive trees as they were blos­som­ing.

Producers in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay also expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant pro­duc­tion declines – rang­ing from 20 per­cent in Chile to 70 per­cent in Argentina and Uruguay and 90 per­cent in Peru.

With the excep­tion of Peru, where pro­duc­tion was dec­i­mated by a lack of chill hours in 2023, lower har­vests were due to many farms enter­ing the ​‘off-year’ in the nat­ural alter­nate bear­ing cycle of the olive tree. Years of drought in Chile and Uruguay also took their toll on the trees.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, olive farm­ers and millers in Australia also expe­ri­enced a slight pro­duc­tion decline. Many trees entered an off-year, while frost and lace bug infes­ta­tions dam­aged oth­ers.

On the other hand, South African pro­duc­ers antic­i­pated a small pro­duc­tion rebound, with some farm­ers report­ing that the sea­son went bet­ter than expected.

Despite the har­vest chal­lenges, farm­ers, millers and bot­tlers from across the hemi­sphere view their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the World Competition as an invest­ment in their brand, pro­mot­ing their high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil brands at home and abroad.

“The idea is to posi­tion the brand both in the local and inter­na­tional mar­kets,” said Victoria Mercado, gen­eral man­ager of El Mistol. The Argentine pro­ducer earned Gold and Silver Awards at the 2023 NYIOOC.

“That is why we also par­tic­i­pate in inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions to posi­tion our­selves, build name recog­ni­tion and know where the mar­ket is going,” she added.

Winning awards from the world’s largest and most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity con­test is par­tic­u­larly impor­tant for pro­duc­ers reliant on exports.

Importers and dis­trib­u­tors view NYIOOC awards as a vote of con­fi­dence and moti­vate pro­duc­ers to con­tinue the hard work of craft­ing award-win­ning qual­ity prod­ucts.

“To win in New York is extra­or­di­nary, espe­cially because our mar­kets are almost 100 per­cent over­seas,” said Fernando Carrasco Spano, the chief exec­u­tive of Chilean pro­ducer Olivos Ruta del Sol, which earned a Gold and a Silver Award at the 2023 NYIOOC.

“Reaching the top moti­vates us to work even harder every year to deliver qual­ity prod­ucts,” he added.

For pro­duc­ers from lesser-known olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­tries, such as South Africa and Uruguay, awards in New York help put their coun­try on the world map and serve as an endorse­ment in the eyes of dis­trib­u­tors.

“We’re still evolv­ing in the United States, and these awards are a good oppor­tu­nity to show that our olive oil is as good as or bet­ter than our com­peti­tors,” said Christi Azurmendi Moon, the U.S. sales direc­tor for Babylonstoren.

The South African pro­ducer earned three Gold Awards at the 2023 NYIOOC. ​“They make it eas­ier to sell to dis­trib­u­tors and end con­sumers,” Azurmendi Moon added.

The same is true in Uruguay, where the country’s largest pro­duc­ers have recently begun to export to neigh­bor­ing Brazil and the United States.

“In mar­kets like the United States, Uruguay is known for meat, dairy prod­ucts and grains, but not for olive oil,” said Victor Rodriguez, head of pro­duc­tion for the Colinas de Garzón brand.

Uruguay’s largest olive oil pro­ducer earned two Gold Awards at the 2023 NYIOOC. ​“These awards help us estab­lish our­selves as an olive oil brand, know­ing that we come from a coun­try not known for olive oil pro­duc­tion,” Rodriguez added.

While many of its South American peers focus on exports, pro­duc­ers in Brazil see the NYIOOC as a way to demon­strate to domes­tic con­sumers that high-qual­ity olive oil does not solely come from abroad.

“International recog­ni­tion puts Brazil in the spot­light for the qual­ity of the olive oils pro­duced,” said Daiana Fuhrmann, the owner of Verde Louro Azeites, which earned two Gold and two Silver Awards at the 2023 NYIOOC.

“This causes the domes­tic con­sumer to seek out, taste and rec­og­nize the olive oils pro­duced here,” she added.

Along with help­ing to sell extra vir­gin olive oil, many pro­duc­ers see NYIOOC awards as evi­dence that they are doing good work in the groves and the mills, and serve a sat­is­fy­ing end to the har­vest sea­son.

“To receive this recog­ni­tion at a pres­ti­gious inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tion such as the NYIOOC is incred­i­bly valu­able for our brand,” said Leandro Ravetti, the co-chief exec­u­tive of Cobram Estate.

Formerly known as Boundary Bend, Australia’s largest olive oil pro­ducer earned two Gold and three Silver Awards at the 2023 NYIOOC.

“It high­lights all the hard work, expe­ri­ence, tech­ni­cal knowl­edge and pas­sion that goes into craft­ing every bot­tle of Cobram Estate extra vir­gin olive oil,” Ravetti said.

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition award win­ners are revealed through­out the judg­ing period as they are ver­i­fied.

Winning brands and pro­duc­ers will be pre­sented in the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils and in spe­cial sec­tions of Olive Oil Times.

Competition data on the World Olive Oil Rankings is updated in real-time.