First-Time Winners Describe Perks of World Competition Awards

As reg­is­tra­tion for the Southern Hemisphere por­tion of the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition closes on September 1^st, first-time win­ners reflect on their debut awards’ impact on their brands.

“The win has helped to pro­mote our brand to cus­tomers that may not have been famil­iar with us,” said Dimitrios Komninos, the owner of Laconia-based Dimitri Olive Farms.

“We now have a broader reach, not only in the United States but also glob­ally,” he added. ​“We feel truly hon­ored to receive an award, espe­cially since it was our first time enter­ing a com­pe­ti­tion.”

Situated on the south­ern tip of the Peloponnese penin­sula, the 200-year-old far­m’s pro­duc­ers earned a Silver Award for a medium-inten­sity unfil­tered Koroneiki. ​“It’s impor­tant to know where your olive oil is com­ing from,” Komninos said.

The award was espe­cially grat­i­fy­ing after a chal­leng­ing sea­son for Dimitri Olive Farms. ​“Like many farm­ers, we faced staffing issues and drought,” Komninos said.

On the other side of the Ionian Sea, the pro­duc­ers behind Olio Infiore cel­e­brated their first-ever World Competition acco­lade, earn­ing a Gold Award for an organic medium-inten­sity Coratina.

Owner Tommaso Fiore said the Apulian pro­ducer plans to use the award to help mar­ket its extra vir­gin olive oil ahead of the upcom­ing sea­son.

“We hope the recog­ni­tion can become a show­case to allow our prod­ucts to be known in the North American mar­ket,” he said. ​“It rep­re­sents our dream for the near future.”

“We will con­tinue to work with pas­sion and ded­i­ca­tion to always offer the best to our cus­tomers,” Fiore added. ​“We are always open to new col­lab­o­ra­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties to grow and fur­ther enhance our prod­uct. We hope this recog­ni­tion is just the begin­ning of some­thing new, and we are grate­ful to NYIOOC for allow­ing it.”

Along with the mar­ket­ing angle, Fiore said the award val­i­dates the hard work and ded­i­ca­tion required to pro­duce world-class olive oil and moti­vates him to do bet­ter next year.

“It’s a moti­va­tion to do bet­ter for our brand, strength­en­ing our rep­u­ta­tion as pro­duc­ers of high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil,” he said. ​“For me, this one is spe­cial since it opens new paths for growth.”

Fiore added that the award also helps pro­mote the south­ern region of Puglia — Italy’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region — as a des­ti­na­tion for qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil rather than bulk olive oil.

“We can lever­age the char­ac­ter­is­tics of our olives, start­ing from Coratina, and bring to life high-qual­ity prod­ucts that can com­pete with every­body in the world,” Fiore said. ​“This can be achieved through a ​‘mag­i­cal’ mix of tra­di­tion, inno­va­tion and skills.”

Along with Mediterranean pro­duc­ers, Canadian importer Cibo Previ was awarded for the first time at the 2024 NYIOOC, earn­ing two Gold Awards for a medium-inten­sity Mariolo and its Itrana, pack­aged under the EVOO Previ and EVOO Previ Bimbi brands.

“The awards have impacted my brand in that it res­onates with my cus­tomers,” said owner Sabrina Rea. ​“Receiving this pres­ti­gious recog­ni­tion was an absolute joy. I’m deeply grate­ful, as it rep­re­sents years of ded­i­ca­tion to pro­mot­ing the high­est qual­ity oil in the world.”

“This honor strength­ens my con­vic­tion to inno­vate and advo­cate for pos­i­tive aging con­tin­u­ally,” she added. ​“It also fuels my com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing North Americans with oppor­tu­ni­ties to enhance their health through this excep­tional, nat­ural prod­uct.”

Rea said that due to harsh weather con­di­tions dur­ing Italy’s 2023/24 har­vest, she was required to pay extra atten­tion to sourc­ing her brand’s oils. ​“As the importer of a pri­vate-label extra vir­gin olive oil, you have to make sure to deliver what you describe,” she said.

“Every olive oil-pro­duc­ing region has its unique bless­ings,” Rea added. ​“Crafting excep­tion­ally high phe­no­lic olive oil that strikes the per­fect bal­ance of robust­ness with­out exces­sive bit­ter­ness is akin to cre­at­ing a mas­ter­piece. Cibo Previ is that mas­ter­piece, and I am hon­ored to present it to the world because a strong com­mu­nity starts with a healthy com­mu­nity.”

She believes the NYIOOC award will help com­mu­ni­cate the qual­ity of the extra vir­gin olive oil and jus­tify the extreme mea­sures she takes to ensure its qual­ity when trans­port­ing it from Italy to Canada.

On the other side of the world, the owner of Japan’s Harvest Farm cel­e­brated his debut World Competition acco­lade, a Gold Award for its Virgin Valley brand, a medium-inten­sity blend of Frantoio, Leccino, Pendolino and Taggiasca olives.

Owner Yoshinori Shikamoto said receiv­ing an award enables the com­pany to pro­mote the high qual­ity of its extra vir­gin olive oil. The win also demon­strates that the qual­ity of Japanese extra vir­gin olive oil is improv­ing.

Harvest Farm earned the award in its third year of pro­duc­tion. After enter­ing the com­pe­ti­tion for the first time, Shikamoto said he was inspired ​“to receive such an hon­or­able award.”

“We regen­er­ated aban­doned farm­land that had turned into for­est into an olive grove,” he said. ​“Over sev­eral years, we expanded the land and began grow­ing olives, which allowed us to pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil.

“I would like to con­tinue to improve my skills and work hard to make good extra vir­gin olive oil,” he added. ​“I will use this award as encour­age­ment to work harder.”