Olive Oil Times
The 2026 Northern Hemisphere edition of the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition has concluded, with producers from 29 countries submitting 1,021 brands in the world’s largest olive oil quality contest.
At Carma (Italy), a challenging season marked by heat and olive fly pressure led to an early harvest and one of the producer’s best results.
This year’s entries earned 464 Gold Awards and 234 Silver Awards, reflecting another remarkable year for high-quality olive oil production under challenging conditions.
Italy again led the competition with 166 awards, followed by Croatia with 128, Greece with 106, the United States with 95 and Spain with 85. Together, the five countries accounted for most of the awards in this year’s Northern Hemisphere edition.
Croatia confirmed its place among the strongest-performing countries at the NYIOOC, while Greece overcame one of its most difficult harvests in decades to achieve a record result.
The 2026 results also pointed to broader shifts across the sector, including the continued rise of organic olive oils, strong results for monovarietal entries and growing recognition for producers in emerging and smaller producing regions.