Greek Producers Celebrate World Competition Triumph After Rebound Harvest

Summary

Greek producers and millers won a total of 96 awards at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, nearly doubling last year’s tally, with a success rate of 66 percent. Producers faced challenges such as drought and low olive oil prices but were able to navigate them expertly, producing award-winning olive oils.

Once again, producers and millers from across Greece demonstrated their unwavering commitment to quality, combining to win a stunning total of 96 awards (54 Gold and 42 Silver) at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Entrants from Greece nearly doubled last year’s tally of 56 awards, registering their second-best appearance in New York after the record 99 awards in 2021.

This year’s 96 awards came after 146 Greek brands were submitted to the World Competition, which translates to a 66 percent success rate, their highest ever.

After the poor harvest in the previous 2023/24 crop year, the country’s olive oil production reached satisfactory levels of around 250,000 tons in 2024/25. Even so, the harvest did not come without its challenges.

The prolonged drought that southern Greece experienced in the autumn dried the olives on the trees, raising concerns about another below-par olive oil crop.

However, Greek producers and millers demonstrated their expertise and nimbleness to navigate the treacherous waters and present world-class, award-winning olive oils at the 2025 NYIOOC.

In addition, the drought finally gave way to abundant rains in November, arriving in time to avert another poor crop year in the country.

“We had to adjust to summer temperatures of around 40 ºC and the drought that lasted for more than 40 days before any rain fell,” said Alexis Karabelas of AMG Karabelas from the western Peloponnese, a winner of four Gold Awards.

AMG Karabelas overcame scorching summer heat to win four Gold Awards at the 2025 NYIOOC. (Photo: AMG Karabelas)

“We were in our groves every day, watering our trees and sprinkling special organic substances to protect the olive drupes from thermal stress,” he added.

The Olympia-based producer has established a four-year winning tradition in New York, and this year, they achieved their highest honor at the competition for the Laurel & Flame and Olymythos brands.

“With four Golds, our joy for winning at the prestigious New York competition for another year is multiplied by four,” Karabelas said.

Around 75 to 80 percent of the olive oil produced in Greece each year is classified as extra virgin, making the country the world’s top producer of extra virgin olive oil when measured as a percentage of the total national production.

Depending on the year’s harvest, some regions in the country can enjoy even higher percentages of extra virgin olive oil, such as Chania in eastern Crete, where around 90 percent of this year’s olive oil crop was of the highest quality.

“This season, our olive oil yield was perfect both in quantity and quality,” local producer Eftychios Androulakis said. “We are so happy to win again at the world’s most prestigious competition.”

Androulakis further solidified his long-established consistency at the World Competition, being awarded for eight years in a row for the Pamako brand. This year, the producer garnered two Gold Awards for an organic monovarietal from the local Tsounati variety and an organic blend.

More Cretan producers, including Skoutari, Efkrato and Kydonakis Bros, crossed the finish line at the competition to win World Competition awards for their signature olive oils.

Crete-based Kyonakis Bros earned a Silver Award for its Messara PDO extra virgin olive oil. (Photo: Kydonakis Bros)

If Crete is the heart of the Greek olive oil industry, then the Peloponnese is its lungs. Producers on the peninsula confirmed their high standing at the World Competition for another year.

The Master Miller, the evolution of Papadopoulos Olive Oil, once again stood out at the World Competition, bringing back to its homeland, close to Ancient Olympia, a remarkable tally of five Gold Awards, the most accolades among Greek producers.

A multi-time winner at the World Competition, the producer has also captured the second overall position among producers worldwide in the Olive Oil Times World Ranking.

“This year’s awards and the second position in the world reaffirm our constant commitment to excellence,” said founder and chief executive Konstantinos Papadopoulos.

Like other producers in the country, Papadopoulos said that the adverse weather and the steep drop in olive oil prices were the biggest challenges for the company this season.

“However, our quick reflexes and timely intervention in the olive groves, along with the proper preparation of our partner olive growers, allowed us to stay on top of the situation,” he added.

Across the Aegean Sea, producers on the island of Lesbos also felt the thrill of being awarded at the 2025 NYIOOC.

See Also:2025 NYIOOC Coverage

“We have been in the business for three years, and we have participated in the New York competition each year,” said Antonis Tirpintiris, the owner of Falcon. “We have won eight Gold Awards and a Silver Award in these three years of competing, filling us with joy and pride.”

Falcon on Lesbos has transformed barren land to an award-winning olive grove. (Photo: Falcon)

Falcon won two Gold Awards and one Silver this year for its Oleve monovarietals and blend from Koroneiki, Kolovi and Adramytini olives.

The company has transformed 200 hectares of previously barren land on the western part of the island into a sustainable olive grove with more than 12,000 olive trees of 12 different varieties.

“The changing climate will continue to make the cultivation of olive trees harder by the day,” Tirpintiris said. “So we have shielded our trees with wells for watering, special nutrients and cutting-edge technologies.”

He added, however, that the most complex problem producers face is olive oil prices at origin, which remain very low and do not compensate for all the work required to maintain a traditional organic olive grove.

From their vantage point in the Ionian Sea, Dr. Kavvadia and Olive Fabrica represented the island of Corfu at this year’s World Competition, winning a Gold and a Silver Award, respectively.

“Winning a Gold Award at the NYIOOC is a reward for our efforts and persistence,” Apostolos Porsanidis, owner of Dr. Kavvadia, said. “It is a good reason to continue evolving and becoming better.”

In the opposite corner of the country, in the southeastern Aegean sea, Natura Rodos from Rhodes extended its winning streak at the World Competition with its fifth NYIOOC accolade this year, a Silver Award for a medium-intensity Koroneiki.

“For the fifth time, our hearts are filled with pride and gratitude,” said the Kallas family, the producers behind Natura Rodos. “This recognition results from hard work, tradition and our deep love for the land.”

The NYIOOC is also the ideal scene for producers looking to inject world recognition into their extra virgin olive oils for the first time.

Yapapi owners Aggelos and Panagiotis Giannoutsos (Photo: Yapapi)

For Yapapi, a Peloponnesian producer from Kalamata, to win a NYIOOC accolade was the perfect scenario for their new olive oil brand.

“We never imagined that our olive oil would be considered something special on such an international stage,” said brothers Aggelos and Panagiotis Giannoutsos, the owners of Yapapi.

“Over the past five years, we’ve dedicated ourselves more and more to understanding and pursuing true quality, and through the NYIOOC, we have come to see the real worth of that effort,” they added.

Yapapi won a Gold Award for a high-phenolic monovarietal from Koroneiki.

The Giannoutsos brothers come from a family with a five-generation-old tradition of olive oil production. To fully reap the benefits of their labor, the young farmers and entrepreneurs decided to bottle their olive oil instead of selling it in bulk.

“Selling oil to distributors at such low prices makes it nearly impossible for a producer to care for their trees properly – and that’s heartbreaking for those of us who deeply love this land and our hard work,” the brothers said.