`Ever Higher Quality Rewarded at Eighth EVO IOOC Italy in Calabria - Olive Oil Times
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Ever Higher Quality Rewarded at Eighth EVO IOOC Italy in Calabria

By Ylenia Granitto
Jul. 11, 2023 13:14 UTC

The award cer­e­mony of the eighth EVO IOOC Italy took place at the Municipal Villa of Palmi, Calabria, on June 30.

The sea of the Violet Coast at sun­set was the sug­ges­tive back­drop of the final event of the inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tion chaired by Antonio G. Lauro, which this year reg­is­tered the par­tic­i­pa­tion of 694 entries, includ­ing 623 extra vir­gin olive oils and 71 fla­vored olive oils, from 26 coun­tries.

The unveil­ing of the Best in Show awards was the main event of the evening, which opened with greet­ings from rep­re­sen­ta­tives of local and regional insti­tu­tions.

See Also:In Italy, Olive Growers See Signs of a Promising Harvest

After announc­ing 38 final­ists with 43 labels, the orga­niz­ers handed out the Best International and Best in Class awards – three prizes went to both Italian and Brazilian com­pa­nies, two were for Spanish com­pa­nies and one went to a com­pany from the United States.

The Best of Country and Special Awards com­pleted the list of the recog­ni­tions bestowed dur­ing the event, adding to the gold and sil­ver medals pre­vi­ously pub­lished on the EVO IOOC web­site and social media pages.

All the acco­lades result from the sen­sory eval­u­a­tions con­ducted in mid-May by an inter­na­tional panel of 24 pro­fes­sional tasters from 11 coun­tries.

“Warmly wel­comed by this charm­ing cor­ner of Calabria that hosted them dur­ing the tast­ing ses­sions, all the judges were pleas­antly amazed by the very high qual­ity of the com­pet­ing prod­ucts,” Lauro told Olive Oil Times.

Calabria is located on the south­west­ern­most tip of the Italian penin­sula and is the country’s sec­ond-largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region after Puglia.

“Their opin­ion on the com­pe­ti­tion is unan­i­mous about its role as a tool for pro­mot­ing pro­duc­tions of excel­lence and its effec­tive­ness in rais­ing the qual­ity bar ever higher,” he added. ​“They empha­sized that it con­tributes to giv­ing the pro­duc­ers a deci­sive boost towards excel­lence, mak­ing them ever more will­ing to take the chal­lenge and improve them­selves.”

He was echoed by the man­ag­ing direc­tor Stefania Reggio: ​“The num­ber of par­tic­i­pants and the increas­ingly high qual­ity of the entries con­firm the solid­ity and value of the project,” she said.

“We thank those who con­tributed to the suc­cess of EVO IOOC, from the man­age­ment team to the judges, as well as the insti­tu­tional and pri­vate part­ners,” Reggio added. ​“They all played a fun­da­men­tal role in mak­ing this con­test an impor­tant event to the ser­vice of pro­duc­ers.”

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Antonio G. Lauro (first row, right), EVO IOOC Italy president, hailed the eighth edition as a success with higher quality entries.

During the prize­giv­ing, the orga­niz­ers under­lined that a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of extra vir­gin olive oils and fla­vored olive oils achieved a score of at least 95 points out of 100, which is evi­dence of the high qual­ity reported by the judges.

They also unveiled the other com­pe­ti­tion fig­ures, which received the high­est num­ber of entries from the Northern Hemisphere (86 per­cent). Italy sub­mit­ted the high­est num­ber (169 entries, equal to 24.4 per­cent of the total), fol­lowed by Turkey (17 per­cent), Greece (12.7 per­cent), Israel (10.1 per­cent), and Spain (7.5 per­cent).

Brazil (9.4 per­cent) com­pleted the list of the most rep­re­sented coun­tries in the com­pe­ti­tion, bring­ing the pres­ence of prod­ucts from the Southern Hemisphere to 14 per­cent.

All the Italian olive-pro­duc­ing regions were rep­re­sented, led by Calabria and Sicily, account­ing for 21 per­cent each. Entries from Puglia accounted for 13 per­cent of all the Italian prod­ucts in the com­pe­ti­tion.

More than 300 mono­va­ri­etals par­tic­i­pated in the con­test, account­ing for 51 per­cent of the total. Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) rep­re­sented 11.4 per­cent of the entries, while cer­ti­fied organic pro­duc­tions exceeded 20 per­cent.

Among the win­ners, the Best of Calabria Special Award went to Tenute Cristiano for its Grand Cru, a blend of Carolea and Nocellara Messinese pro­duced in Lamezia Terme.

“We are over­joyed to receive this recog­ni­tion that repays the great work made and our com­mit­ment towards qual­ity over the years,” Isabella Cristiano said. ​“We strongly believe in the broad value of pre­mium extra vir­gin olive oil, and we con­stantly strive for higher stan­dards.”

“To do this, we exper­i­ment a lot and try to improve our­selves con­stantly,” Cristiano added. ​“We have noticed that, on the com­mer­cial level, awards like this have a very pos­i­tive impact since they are fur­ther guar­an­teed for the con­sumers about the high qual­ity of the prod­uct.”

The com­plete list of win­ners can be found on the EVO IOOC web­site.

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