Part of our continuing special coverage of the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.
Entrants from Greece rejoiced of their second-best performance within the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, winning an impressive 79 awards (45 Gold and 34 Silver) from 142 entries.
In the previous edition of the competition, Greeks earned a record-high haul of 99 awards.
Our quest for a distinctive olive oil made us reconsider and redenice eachfactor we knew about olive developing and olive oil professionalduction.
Olive oil professionalducers, bottlers and exporters from throughout the counattempt exceeded expectations in a harvest season burdened with climate extremes, excessive professionalduction prices and decrease than ordinary yields in several olive oil-producing territories.
The initial professionaljections of a lowered yield for the entire counattempt had been verified with a complete of 225,000 tons of olive oil professionalduced within the 2021/22 crop 12 months, down by 50,000 tons from the 2020/21 professionalduction complete.
See Also:The Best Olive Oils from Greece
Even extra, Greece was among the many Mediterranean countries most severely hit by wildfires in August, suffering substantial losses in forest and agricultural capital.
Along with the most well liked summer in a long time which took its toll on the 2020/21 olive oil crop, the wildfires added one other layer of exhaustingship for a substantial yield to Greek professionalducers.
Most impacted had been these situated in western Peloponnese close to Ancient Olympia and in northern Evia, the place thousands of olive timber had been damaged or turned to ashes by the blazes.
Greek professionalducers measured as much as the requirements winning multiple awards at NYIOOC, reafagencying the stature of the nation’s olive oil sector, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of the whole worth of the nationwide agricultural professionalduction compared to 1 percent in different European olive oil-producing countries, as of 2018.
“It has been a difficult harvesting season,” Konstantinos Chantzopoulos, the digital communications manager at Olix Oil, instructed Olive Oil Times.
Photo: Olix Oil
“The adverse weather, the prolonged drought and the wildfires have all left their mark on the olive oil production in Greece, and the unpropitious circumstances for the sector have been intensified by the pandemic aftermath and the ongoing war [in Ukraine],” he added.
However, a 100-percent success charge and three Gold Awards gave Olix Oil an excellent reason to celebrate a nice presenting at NYIOOC this 12 months.
“We are grateful and extremely satisfied with the results because each bottle of ‘liquid gold’ we produce requires a lot of effort and passion for the generous Greek land,” Chantzopoulos stated. “It is the perfect reward for our hard work and a motivation to keep producing products of premium quality, especially in the hard times we live in.”
The professionalducer from Laconia was awarded for its Nate Premium, Koroneiki Premium and Ladelia Premium monovarietal additional virgin olive oils, all produced from a medium Koroneiki.
Olix Oil has advanced into an international corporation at all times striving to satisfy the wants of consumers worldvast, aspiring to “make them know the Greek flavors… and be able to enjoy the benefits of the best diet in the world; the Mediterranean diet.”
Cretan professionalducers, from one aspect of the island to the opposite, loved one other lustrous seemance on the 2022 NYIOOC, accounting for 15 awards from the nation’s 79 awards.
Skoutari from Lasithi in eastern Crete is begining to kind a obscure, in the intervening time, winning streak within the competition, earning a Gold Award for its identifysake monovarietal from Koroneiki for the second consecutive 12 months.
Photo: Skoutari
“We are extremely happy that our extra virgin olive oil was awarded for the second time in a row in the most prestigious and demanding competition in the world,” co-owner Maria Sgourou instructed Olive Oil Times.
The company has been within the olive oil business since 2000 after taking over the family olive groves positioned between the villages of Kritsas and Kavousi. Its initial purpose was to professionalduce an olive oil distinctive for its flavor and wholesome attributes.
“Our quest for a distinctive olive oil made us reconsider and redefine everything we knew about olive growing and olive oil production,” Sgourou stated. “Since 2020, when our olive oil was bottled for the first time, every award we receive is a verification of our choices, and it propels us forward.”
Skoutari is a high-phenolic additional virgin olive oil bearing a well being declare below the requirements of the E.U. regulation 432/2012.
Another Gold Award went to Androulakis Eftychios Olive Oil Bottling from the western Cretan province of Chania, an space that has constantly been professionalducing NYIOOC winners through the years.
Photo: Androulakis Eftychios Olive Oil Bottling
The professionalducer was awarded for its Pamako Mountain Organic Blend, produced from the Koroneiki and Tsounati varieties.
An established NYIOOC competitor already in its sixth 12 months within the competition, the company has obtained multiple awards for its monovarietal and blended additional virgin olive oils.
“We are excited to win again at NYIOOC, and it is always a joy to receive a Gold Award in such a prestigious competition,” proprietor Eftychios Androulakis stated. “We are always improving, and we are currently ahead of an expansion of our facilities and human capital while we remain focused on quality.”
Androulakis additionally anticipated a bountiful harvest within the area of Chania within the subsequent crop 12 months. He stated that the moveering of the olive timber continues without significant problems to this point, and the wet winter of 2021/22 has stuffed the world’s natural subterranean reservoirs, creating the correct belowlay for the timber to thrive.
Apart from returning competitors, first-time entrants from Greece had been additionally topped on the world’s largest olive oil quality contake a look at.
The Peloponnesian Ootopia was successful in its first-ever participation within the competition receiving awards for all three of its entries.
Photo: Ootopia
The company gained two Gold Awards for its identifysake Manaki monovarietal and mix from Manaki and Koroneiki and a Silver Award for the natural Single Estate Iliokastro from Koroneiki.
“[We are] so, so proud,” stated John Anairousis, the gross sales manager of Ootopia, after seeing the corporate’s imaginative and prescient to create a world-class property capable of professionalduce exceptional olive oils getting on observe.
“It was our first time in the prestigious NYIOOC competition, and we won two Gold and one Silver Award,” Anairousis added. “Ootopia leads the statistics since it is one of the few Greek brands to win three awards with equal entries.”
Achieving excellence was no straightforward process for Ootopia this season, regulateing to the challenges the erratic climate presented during harvest.
“The weather was hot and windy in our region,” Anairousis stated. “We decided to harvest in two different timeframes in the day, early in the morning and late in the afternoon, to avoid high temperatures. This tactic offered us the crucial advantage of delivering our handpicked olives quickly and at the right temperature to the mill.”
Ootopia has constructed its privately-owned olive oil mill near its olive groves of three,500 olive timber in Ermioni in northeast Peloponnese, reducing the time between harvesting and professionalcessing of the olives for optimum outcomes.
Olive timber of Italian and Spanish varieties additionally spring up within the firm’s groves amongst timber of the Koroneiki variety, supporting the corporate’s motto of being ‘extra virgin olive oil perfectionists’ than ‘extra virgin olive oil nationalists.’
“The results [at the NYIOOC] justified our strategy,” Anairousis concluded, bursting with excitement. “We are so proud of our product, but more so of our people, our dedication, our vision.”
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