Portuguese Producers Reap Benefits of Record Harvest at World Competition

Part of our con­tin­u­ing spe­cial cov­er­age of the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Portuguese pro­duc­ers won 17 Gold and 18 Silver Awards at the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition after pro­duc­ing a record-high yield of around 200 mil­lion liters of olive oil in the 2021/22 crop year.

Mariana Matos, the sec­re­tary-gen­eral of Casa do Azeite, the Portuguese Olive Oil Association, said she was not sur­prised by the stel­lar results.

“In recent years, Portuguese pro­duc­tion has increased by around 500 per­cent due to huge pub­lic and pri­vate invest­ment,” she told Olive Oil Times. ​“More impor­tant than the increase in the quan­tity is the excel­lent qual­ity, with around 95 per­cent extra vir­gin olive oil cur­rently being pro­duced in the coun­try.”

Trás-os-Montes Prime from north­ern Portugal was awarded a Gold for its medium blend and two Silver Awards for its medium Cobrancosa blends.

“These awards are a recog­ni­tion for our work and a huge moti­va­tion to keep try­ing in each har­vest to pro­duce the best pos­si­ble extra vir­gin olive oils,” co-owner António Pavão said.

Pavão listed his family’s pas­sion, their native olive tree cul­ti­vars, the region’s ter­roir, the ded­i­ca­tion of their col­lab­o­ra­tors and the exper­tise of his brother — who makes the final blends — as fac­tors that set their prod­uct apart.

He said it was a chal­lenge dur­ing the pre­vi­ous har­vest to main­tain the qual­ity lev­els of the pre­ced­ing ones. ​“Most wor­ry­ing is the huge increase in pro­duc­tion and mate­r­ial costs,” Pavão said.

Also, from Trás-os-Montes, Casa Agrícola Roboredo Madeira earned a Gold and Silver Award for its organic del­i­cate blends.

The company’s com­mer­cial direc­tor, Miguel Azevedo Remédio, said the awards were a great honor. ​“It means that we’re on the right path in terms of what we want for our olive oils: always the best qual­ity,” he said.

“We’re in the unique Douro Superior region tak­ing advan­tage of tak­ing good care of very old olive groves,” Remédio added.

The com­pany blends its oils, as they do with their wines, until they achieve the desired pro­files.

He said labor short­ages were a prob­lem dur­ing the pre­vi­ous har­vest, and they expect the lack of rain­fall to impact the next crop, but they will be focus­ing on their milling process to main­tain their qual­ity.

Mercorural, another pro­ducer from Trás-os-Montes, took home a Gold Award for its medium organic blend.

The company’s mar­ket­ing man­ager, Eduardo Casas, said the award afforded its brand pres­tige and global vis­i­bil­ity. In addi­tion, he said the region’s ter­roir and unique cul­ti­vars set their oils apart.

For Mercorural, the 2021/22 har­vest was a suc­cess in terms of qual­ity and quan­tity, but they expect a lower yield this year.

Family-owned Quinta dos Olmais in the north of the coun­try earned a Silver Award for its organic medium-inten­sity Cobrancosa.

The com­pa­ny’s co-owner, Julio Alves, said the only chal­lenge dur­ing their pre­vi­ous, record-break­ing har­vest was the usual lack of labor­ers. He also expressed con­cerns about the upcom­ing har­vest due to high tem­per­a­tures dur­ing the flow­er­ing sea­son and dry win­ter.

Segredos Do Côa from the country’s north­ern Duoro region earned a Silver for its organic medium blend.

Anibal Soares, the company’s chief exec­u­tive and pro­ducer, said the olives for their unfil­tered field blend are hand-picked from their cen­te­nary trees that grow in clay soils on high slopes, and their olives are har­vested early, before they fully ripen.

He added it was chal­leng­ing to find qual­i­fied work­ers dur­ing the har­vest sea­son. Winds and low rain­fall might pre­vent a high yield this fall, but that remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Esporão, in the country’s south­ern Alentejo region, received a Gold Award for its del­i­cate Cordovil and a Silver Award for its medium Cobrancosa blend.

Ana Carrilho, the company’s chief ole­ol­o­gist, said it was a ​“tremen­dous honor” to receive the awards that ver­i­fied the qual­ity of their oils pro­duced from native Portuguese cul­ti­vars.

“Our mis­sion is to make the finest prod­ucts that nature pro­vides in a respon­si­ble and inspir­ing way,” she said.

Carrilho said Esporão’s sus­tain­able extra vir­gin olive oils express the Alentejo region.

The 2021/22 har­vest was Esporão’s best, but Carrilho said she also fore­sees a dif­fi­cult har­vest ahead due to cur­rent weather con­di­tions.

From the Eastern Algarve region in the south, pro­ducer Viveiros Monterosa was awarded a Gold for its medium Cobrancosa and two Silvers for its del­i­cate Macanilha de Tavira and its del­i­cate blend.

Viveiros Monterosa sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive António Duarte said he was delighted with the results and that the NYIOOC awards are impor­tant to pro­mote the brand.

The sus­tain­able com­pany uses tra­di­tional processes com­bined with mod­ern tech­nol­ogy. ​“We still work with a gran­ite stone press in con­junc­tion with more mod­ern machin­ery,” Duarte said.

He added that the company’s main chal­lenge dur­ing the pre­vi­ous har­vest was to adapt their process to har­vest and process their large yield. He said they expect a lower yield but a high-qual­ity result next time.

Back in the Alentejo region, Monte Vale de Baio won a Silver Award for its del­i­cate organic Galega.

“It was a great honor for us to receive a Silver Award at the NYIOOC,” said Alan Andrew, the co-owner of Monte Vale de Baio. ​“We have worked hard to use regen­er­a­tive organic prac­tices in our non-irri­gated Galega olive groves to pro­duce a high-qual­ity olive oil that is deli­cious and sus­tain­able.”

Andrew said the com­pany hopes to pro­mote the prac­tice of small-scale organic pro­duc­tion in Portugal.

“We hope that the award will give us expo­sure to help con­sumers know we are in the mar­ket and invite them to visit our farm,” he said.

Andrew said the olive fly was a chal­lenge dur­ing the pre­vi­ous har­vest, as always, and added that the com­pany expects a lower yield this year. ​“It seems that after a very abun­dant year last year, this year the trees will take a lit­tle break,” he said.

Monte do Camelo, also from Portugal’s south, earned a Silver Award for its Tratturo de Fronteira brand, a del­i­cate Galega.

“It is a recog­ni­tion of our work,” said Ana Cardoso, the company’s co-owner, ​“but above all, a suc­cess for our first olive oil, which makes us believe that we are on the right track.”

Cardoso said the small busi­ness focuses on qual­ity rather than quan­tity, being sure to extract oil within six hours of har­vest­ing the fuits.

Cardosa described the pre­vi­ous har­vest — Monte do Camelo’s first — as a new expe­ri­ence, with plenty of trial and error.

“Nonetheless, we are focused on improv­ing our qual­ity regard­less of the quan­tity,” she said.