S. Hemisphere Producers Reap Rewards of Challenging Harvest

Farmers, millers and bot­tlers from seven coun­tries across three con­ti­nents com­bined to win 44 awards in the Southern Hemisphere divi­sion of the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

From Australia to Uruguay, pro­duc­ers over­came a chal­leng­ing crop year in which farm­ers had to con­tend with extreme weather events and pests. At the same time, millers and bot­tlers faced rolling black­outs and ris­ing pro­duc­tion costs.

South Africa led the way, with eight pro­duc­ers cap­i­tal­iz­ing on a boun­ti­ful har­vest to earn 12 awards from 19 entries, the sec­ond-high­est medal count in the country’s his­tory.

While the weather was widely help­ful for craft­ing award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oil, pro­duc­ers strug­gled with the country’s rolling black­outs, which required care­ful coor­di­na­tion between har­vest and milling teams.

“Quality was excep­tional, and we were able to get the crop off early before the heavy win­ter rain­fall,” said Brenda Wilkinson, co-owner of Rio Largo, which earned a Silver Award for a medium-inten­sity blend of Frantoio, Leccino and Coratina olives.

“Our olive oils dis­played higher polyphe­nols but remained bal­anced with very good oil yields,” she added. ​“Overall, our olive oils gave good aro­mas and a very clean mouth feel with lin­ger­ing pun­gency.”

First-time South African entrants cel­e­brated their World Competition suc­cess along with the estab­lished brands.

The pro­ducer behind Ubuntu, the country’s first black-owned olive oil brand, earned a Silver Award for a del­i­cate blend.

“I am excited and proud, and I hope this will inspire all those who dare to dream, espe­cially my broth­ers and sis­ters in Africa,” said owner Loyiso Manga. ​“This is a tes­ta­ment that extra vir­gin olive oil from South Africa is top-tier and deserves the respect it’s worth.”

Farmers and millers from Brazil fin­ished closely behind South Africa, earn­ing 11 awards from 14 entries.

Most of the country’s olive oil pro­duc­tion comes from the south­ern state of Rio Grande do Sul, which expe­ri­enced dis­as­trous flood­ing.

The floods, which destroyed cities and claimed thou­sands of lives, fol­lowed extreme weather that dam­aged most of the state’s olive groves, result­ing in a his­tor­i­cally poor har­vest.

Not far from Brazil, three pro­duc­ers from Chile com­bined to earn seven awards from 11 entries. Similarly to Brazil, the coun­try expe­ri­enced a sig­nif­i­cant pro­duc­tion decline, in part due to cli­matic fac­tors and the olive tree’s nat­ural alter­nate-bear­ing ten­den­cies.

“We are very happy and hon­ored with this award,” said Fernando Carrasco Spano, the chief exec­u­tive of Olivos Ruta del Sol, which earned two awards. ​“Over the years [win­ning at the NYIOOC] has allowed us to com­mu­ni­cate to our con­sumers the con­sol­i­da­tion of our qual­ity over time.”

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Australian pro­duc­ers earned seven awards from 12 entries. The coun­try expe­ri­enced a slight but expected pro­duc­tion decline, with heavy rain com­pli­cat­ing the har­vest.

“The quan­tity har­vested was gen­er­ally lower than pre­vi­ous years, not unex­pected given the effects of the spring rains,” said Stephen and Sui Tham, the co-own­ers of Cape Schanck Olive Estate.

Despite the adver­sity, the Victoria-based farm­ers man­aged a high-qual­ity har­vest, earn­ing Gold and Silver Awards for a medium Coratina and medium Picual, respec­tively.

In South America, pro­duc­ers and bot­tlers from Argentina, Peru and Uruguay cel­e­brated award-win­ning fin­ishes to oth­er­wise chal­leng­ing har­vests.

Two pro­duc­ers from Mendoza, Argentina, each won a Gold Award. Meanwhile, Uruguay’s two largest olive oil pro­duc­ers com­bined to earn a Gold and two Silver Awards after the coun­try expe­ri­enced a dra­matic pro­duc­tion decline.

Finally, an importer and pro­ducer in Peru earned a Silver Award, craft­ing the country’s first award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils in the World Competition since 2014.

“Winning the Silver Award at the NYOOC is a great honor and val­i­dates the effort and ded­i­ca­tion put into every stage of pro­duc­tion,” said Lourdes González, the head of sales and qual­ity assur­ance spe­cial­ist at pro­ducer Vallesur, which was awarded for a medium Criolla.

“It con­firms that we are on the right path, com­mit­ted to excel­lence and offer­ing a prod­uct that meets the high­est qual­ity stan­dards,” she added. ​“But fun­da­men­tally, this award moti­vates us to con­tinue improv­ing and share our pas­sion for olive oil with more peo­ple world­wide.”

Along with this val­i­da­tion, González said she expects the award to help the com­pany find new export oppor­tu­ni­ties, includ­ing in the United States.

“We believe this award will high­light and sup­port the qual­ity of our TIQSI pre­mium extra vir­gin olive oil,” she said. ​“We also hope that it will strengthen the trust of our cur­rent cus­tomers and attract new con­sumers inter­ested in high-end olive oils.”