Award-Winning Producers Optimistic As Olive Oil Culture Takes Root in Japan

Part of our con­tin­u­ing spe­cial cov­er­age of the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Seven extra vir­gin olive oils from Japan – one less than last year – were awarded at the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Overall, five pro­duc­ers com­bined to win three Gold Awards and four Silver Awards at the world’s most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion.

The win­ning pro­duc­ers told Olive Oil Times that the out­look for the upcom­ing years is bright as olive oil cul­ture con­tin­ues to spread through­out the coun­try.

Extra vir­gin olive oil is becom­ing more com­mon in Japanese house­holds and restau­rants, with fam­i­lies and chefs increas­ingly appre­ci­at­ing the healthy prop­er­ties and unique fla­vors of high-qual­ity olive oil.

In a coun­try where the cli­mate is often chal­leng­ing for olive grow­ers, pro­duc­ers reported excel­lent yields in 2020, both in terms of quan­tity and qual­ity.

“Despite the weather, the 2020 olive har­vest went well. I believe we were able to pro­duce the deli­cious olive oil we were look­ing for,” Toyohiro Takao, the owner of Takao Nouen who earned a Silver Award for his Olive Hatake brand, told Olive Oil Times.

“Japan’s cli­mate is char­ac­ter­ized by heavy rain­fall, from spring to autumn. We are chal­lenged by the hours of sun­shine and the amount of rain,” he added. ​“For instance, the rainy sea­son takes place in the time of flow­er­ing and pol­li­na­tion. I was wor­ried about this, but last year it did not rain dur­ing the flow­er­ing sea­son in my grove, and pol­li­na­tion is going well.”

Takao empha­sized how the typhoon sea­son, which runs from July to October, ​“is a sea­son of many wor­ries, as strong winds can cause trees to col­lapse and fruit to fall.”

“Regarding the weather, I feel that the sum­mer is get­ting hot­ter,” Takao added. ​“We are wor­ried about the lack of pre­cip­i­ta­tion in mid-sum­mer, but we are ready to irri­gate the fields, and we are mon­i­tor­ing the olive trees and fruit.”

In such an envi­ron­ment, he believes that the secret to pro­duce award-win­ning olive oil is by focus­ing on grow­ing healthy trees.

“That is how we obtain beau­ti­ful fruits, the oil of which is extracted quickly after har­vest­ing and fil­tered imme­di­ately after that, with all of these oper­a­tions tak­ing place at con­trolled tem­per­a­tures,” he said.

Along with plenty of other Japanese pro­duc­ers, Takao said that olive oil’s pop­u­lar­ity is grow­ing rapidly in Japan.

“The use of olive oil in the home is increas­ing,” Takao said. ​“The amount of olive oil sold in food stores is increas­ing. Imports are also on the rise. However, since last year, we have been receiv­ing orders from sushi restau­rants, soba noo­dle restau­rants, tem­pura restau­rants, kappo restau­rants and other Japanese restau­rants.”

With three Gold Awards in the last three edi­tions of the NYIOOC, the Agri Olive Shodoshima Company once again claimed top hon­ors at the com­pe­ti­tion with its medium blend.

Unlike other pro­duc­ers in Japan, Agri Olive Shodoshima’s olive groves are favor­ably influ­enced by the unique cli­mate of Shodoshima Island, which closely resem­bles that of the Mediterranean. The island’s ideal con­di­tions are attrib­uted to it being the cra­dle of Japan’s first olive grow­ing oper­a­tions.

“We do have our chal­lenges,” Nobuyuki Hiraiwa, the company’s pres­i­dent, told Olive Oil Times. ​“Due to the island’s remote loca­tion, the pro­duc­tive pop­u­la­tion is small, and it is dif­fi­cult to secure work­ers for farm­ing.”

“On top of that, only a frac­tion of the island is flat land, so we count on a lim­ited area for olive cul­ti­va­tion,” he added.

The com­pany has two decades of expe­ri­ence grow­ing olives, includ­ing some of the most renowned Mediterranean cul­ti­vars, such as Lucca, Manzanillo, Nevadillo Blanco, Arbequina and Kalamata.

The blend that won the 2021 NYIOCC judges’ approval com­prised Mission, Manzanillo, Lucca and Nevadillo Negro olives.

“The qual­ity of our olive oil depends on the right choice of the fruits, their ripeness and the tim­ing of the trans­for­ma­tion and fil­ter­ing oper­a­tions, which are car­ried out in a low-tem­per­a­ture envi­ron­ment imme­di­ately after har­vest­ing,” Hiraiwa said.

Among the secrets employed by Hiraiwa to pro­duce his award-win­ning olive oil is to ​“apply olive water and com­post made by fer­ment­ing the pruned olive branches to our orchards, which is also one of the few meth­ods of cir­cu­lar olive farm­ing in Japan.”

With more than 70 years of olive grow­ing expe­ri­ence, Nippon Olive Company once again won two Gold Awards at the NYIOOC for its Ushimado and its Ushimado Superior brands.

“I believe Ushimado Superior has great poten­tial on the inter­na­tional mar­ket,” Kenichi Nakagawa, head of olive oil research at the com­pany, told Olive Oil Times.

“Our work is exclu­sively focused on qual­ity, and that is true for the whole pro­duc­tion process, from olive grow­ing to har­vest­ing, and the choice of the rightly-ripened fruits to the process of trans­for­ma­tion, which is con­stantly updated,” he added.

Similar to Agri Olive Shodoshima, the Nippon Olive Company spe­cial­izes in cul­ti­vat­ing tra­di­tional Mediterranean vari­eties.

Ushimado Superior is a medium blend of Mission, Nevadillo Blanco and Lucca olives, while Ushimado is a medium blend of Arbequina, Mission, Manzanillo, Lucca and Nevadillo Blanco olives.

“We grow sev­eral cul­ti­vars, and that allows us to choose the right har­vest­ing moment for each one of them,” Nakagawa said, adding that this is no easy task due to Japan’s unique cli­mate.

“Last year, we had too much rain­fall, so it was not easy to har­vest; there are times when rain­fall heav­ily con­di­tions har­vest­ing times,” Nakagawa said. ​“Excessive rain­fall may also influ­ence the final taste of olive oil.”

For Nakagawa and the rest of the team behind the Nippon Olive Company, win­ning awards at the NYIOOC has a pro­found impact on the brand.

“We do not feel like we are chal­leng­ing other com­pa­nies; we feel that the NYIOOC is a com­pe­ti­tion that can help us make an even bet­ter olive oil,” Nakagawa said. ​“When we look at the NYIOOC results, we under­stand that our work with our best olive oils are head­ing in the right direc­tion.”

“From the 2021 NYIOOC, we can expe­ri­ence and taste other top-of-class olive oils and study their char­ac­ter­is­tics,” he added.

Along with learn­ing from their mis­takes and suc­cesses, the com­pe­ti­tion has also helped the Nippon Olive Company expand its cus­tomer base.

“And that hap­pens because olive oil is spread­ing in the Japanese home and influ­enc­ing Japanese lifestyle, becom­ing more and more pop­u­lar for its healthy qual­i­ties,” Nakagawa said.

Japan’s other multi-award-win­ning pro­ducer was Crea Farm, which earned two Silver Awards for a mono­va­ri­etal Koroneiki and Coratina.

The com­pany has now been awarded at the NYIOOC for three con­sec­u­tive years, which makes the pro­duc­ers espe­cially proud due to the par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges faced by the trees, which grow in the shadow of Mount Fuji.

“When I started grow­ing olives, I was instructed to cul­ti­vate robust root sys­tems that could with­stand the strong wind, heavy rain and typhoons,” Tatsuya Okumura, the com­pa­ny’s senior man­ag­ing direc­tor, told Olive Oil Times.

“Comparing to tra­di­tional olive-grow­ing coun­tries, the weather here means heav­ier rain­fall and typhoons from sum­mer to autumn,” he added. ​“It has been sev­eral years since we began olive cul­ti­va­tion, and I think good results have been achieved.”

Okumura said that 2020 had been an excel­lent year for Crea Farm, in part due to the reduced num­ber of typhoons that the area expe­ri­enced.

“The vol­ume of our yields has increased over the years,” Okumura said. ​“Still, cli­mate change is here. I think that it is felt not only by olive grow­ers but also by the gen­eral pub­lic liv­ing in the city.”

“I have done a busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity plan because all I can do against nat­ural threats is pre­dic­tion and coun­ter­mea­sures,” he added.

Another chal­lenge that Crea Farm had to take on in the early years of pro­duc­tion was the choice of cul­ti­vars since not all olive vari­eties can adapt to such a harsh envi­ron­ment. Twelve Italian and Spanish vari­eties are at the heart of Crea Farm’s suc­cess.

“Looking at the growth and the yields, the vari­eties I have selected seem to have adapted to my land and the farm­ing very well,” Okumura said. ​“On the other hand, there are some vari­a­tions in growth in the newly planted areas.”

“I think it is nec­es­sary to estab­lish a cul­ti­va­tion method that suits each grow­ing area based on the dif­fer­ent soil types,” he added.

His results at the NYIOOC and those of his com­pa­tri­ots also have Okumura feel­ing opti­mistic about the future of olive oil pro­duc­tion in Japan.

“Due to the depth of inter­est in not only Western food but also Japanese food, the pro­por­tion of olive oil among imported oils has been the high­est in the house­hold oil and fat mar­ket for sev­eral years,” he said.

“I believe that this trend will con­tinue in the future,” Okumura con­cluded. ​“In addi­tion to using olive oil as it is, prod­uct devel­op­ment such as fish and veg­eta­bles packed in olive oil are also get­ting more atten­tion.”