Olive Oil Excellence on the Rise: Record-Breaking Achievements at the 2023 NYIOOC

There are more first-rate extra vir­gin olive oils today than ever before, accord­ing to the final results of the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

The eleventh edi­tion of the world’s largest and most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity con­test ended Monday when the final win­ners from the Southern Hemisphere divi­sion were revealed on the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils.

A record 1,170 entries from 30 coun­tries were ana­lyzed in two judg­ing peri­ods tai­lored to the oppos­ing har­vest sea­sons in Northern and Southern Hemisphere farms.

The com­pe­ti­tion bestowed the industry’s most cov­eted qual­ity awards to a record-break­ing 848 brands from around the globe.

“These results rep­re­sent, in the strongest terms, the unyield­ing com­mit­ment and deter­mi­na­tion by pro­duc­ers in every region who over­came one of the most chal­leng­ing har­vests in recent times to achieve excel­lence,” Curtis Cord, the NYIOOC founder and pres­i­dent, told Olive Oil Times.

Over the 2022/23 crop year, extreme weather, labor short­ages and eco­nomic pres­sures con­fronted pro­duc­ers in nearly every region, whose task is ardu­ous even in the best con­di­tions.

The NYIOOC analy­sis team, com­posed of expert tasters from 13 coun­tries, scru­ti­nized each entry’s pos­i­tive char­ac­ter­is­tics, includ­ing fruiti­ness, bit­ter­ness and pun­gency. Olfactory and gus­ta­tory sen­sa­tions were metic­u­lously recorded, as were the oil’s over­all har­mony, com­plex­ity and per­sis­tence of the sen­sory qual­i­ties.

Since the first com­pe­ti­tion in 2013, the suc­cess rate of entries has risen steadily as pro­duc­ers have become more informed on the best prac­tices to pro­duce high-qual­ity olive oils and invested in updated pro­cess­ing sys­tems. Technical and edu­ca­tional ini­tia­tives by coop­er­a­tives, PDOs, and national agri­cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions have con­tributed to a dra­matic rise in qual­ity over the period.

“The mean level of qual­ity sug­gests that NYIOOC par­tic­i­pants are a set of pro­duc­ers who know what they’re doing and have put in the time, effort and invest­ments to make world-class extra vir­gin olive oils,” Cord said. ​“The defects that were com­mon­place in ear­lier edi­tions have become rarer.”

That means excel­lent olive oils are more acces­si­ble than ever before. ​“The plethora of options we have today to expe­ri­ence well-crafted, deli­cious and healthy extra vir­gin olive oils was unthink­able ten years ago,” Cord said.

The NYIOOC award-win­ning brands are listed in the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils with tast­ing notes, food pair­ing sug­ges­tions, pro­ducer pro­files and tourism oppor­tu­ni­ties for those who would like to learn about high-qual­ity olive oils from the peo­ple who cre­ate them.