Producers in Spain Cap Strong Harvest with Quality Awards

Summary

Spanish olive farm­ers, millers, bot­tlers, and dis­trib­u­tors won 93 awards at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition after a suc­cess­ful 2024/25 har­vest fol­low­ing years of poor pro­duc­tion due to high spring tem­per­a­tures and drought. Producers in Andalusia, as well as other regions in Spain, cel­e­brated their suc­cess at the com­pe­ti­tion, with a focus on main­tain­ing high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil for inter­na­tional mar­kets.

Olive farm­ers, millers, bot­tlers and dis­trib­u­tors in Spain capped off a fruit­ful 2024/25 har­vest by win­ning 93 awards at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition. 

A wet and mild win­ter and spring in 2024 pro­vided relief to Spanish pro­duc­ers after con­sec­u­tive years of high spring tem­per­a­tures and drought resulted in two his­tor­i­cally poor har­vests. 

Spain pro­duced 1.41 mil­lion met­ric tons of olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year, sig­nif­i­cantly more than the 665,800 tons pro­duced in 2022/23 and 852,600 tons the year after.

“Thankfully, this year we recov­ered pro­duc­tion and qual­ity, a very impor­tant com­bi­na­tion that is allow­ing us to win back cus­tomers who, due to the cost of the last two sea­sons, had reduced their con­sump­tion,” said Rosa López, the com­pany direc­tor of Aires de Jaén.

The Andalusian pro­ducer earned a fourth con­sec­u­tive Gold Award for its Consum brand, a medium-inten­sity blend. 

“For Aires de Jaén, win­ning an inter­na­tional award, par­tic­u­larly a Gold in New York, is a source of pride and recog­ni­tion for our work pro­mot­ing high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil,” López said. ​“The team­work of a highly qual­i­fied staff, per­fectly ripe fruit and state-of-the-art machin­ery is allow­ing us to pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil rec­og­nized world­wide.”

See Also:The best extra vir­gin olive oils from Spain

She added that win­ning awards at the NYIOOC is espe­cially impor­tant for com­pa­nies seek­ing to export to the United States.

“The United States is a very impor­tant mar­ket for Spain; it is the coun­try that imports the most olive oil, and being able to show­case our extra vir­gin olive oil with an award is impor­tant, as the NYIOOC is a very impor­tant entry point,” López said.

Elsewhere in Andalusia, pro­ducer and bot­tler Goya en España cel­e­brated three Gold Awards for its Goya Organic, Goya Robusto and Goya Único brands.

“Each cam­paign is a new chal­lenge, and achiev­ing these types of results con­firms that we are on the right path,” said Antonio Carrasco, Goya en España’s gen­eral man­ager. ​“It’s not just about win­ning awards, but about reaf­firm­ing our com­mit­ment to offer­ing a supe­rior qual­ity prod­uct to con­sumers 

Carrasco added that the 2024/25 crop year had been chal­leng­ing in the company’s main pro­duc­tion areas, with the impacts of the pro­longed drought and high prices at ori­gin cre­at­ing a range of chal­lenges for the com­pany.

Off the back of a chal­leng­ing har­vest, Carrasco said win­ning at inter­na­tional olive oil com­pe­ti­tions is espe­cially impor­tant, not just for Goya en España but for Spanish pro­duc­ers in gen­eral.

“Spain is the world leader in olive oil pro­duc­tion, but some­times that posi­tion isn’t clearly reflected in inter­na­tional con­sumer per­cep­tions of qual­ity,” he said. ​“Competitions like the NYIOOC are a great help in rais­ing aware­ness of the level of excel­lence that many brands, like Goya, bring to the mar­ket.” 

“They are an impor­tant boost for dis­trib­u­tors and con­sumers and strengthen the image of Spanish extra vir­gin olive oil as a gourmet, healthy and sus­tain­able prod­uct,” Carrasco added.

Overall, pro­duc­ers from the south­ern Spanish region of Andalusia, the world’s largest olive oil pro­ducer by a sig­nif­i­cant mar­gin, com­bined to win 60 awards at the World Competition.

In the south­east­ern Andalusian province of Almería, the team behind OleoAlmanzora cel­e­brated win­ning its debut World Competition acco­lade, a Silver Award for a medium Arbequina.

OleoAlmanzora celebrated a debut award at the World Competition after a slightly lower than expected harvest. (Photo: OleoAlmanzora)

“For us, it’s an honor to have achieved this dis­tinc­tion,” said Sidoro Haro Rubio, head of sales and mar­ket­ing. ​“Winning the medals is very impor­tant, both in terms of mar­ket­ing and image in the coun­try where we received them, but also at the provin­cial level, as we con­tinue to con­sol­i­date our prod­uct as an image of gourmet qual­ity in Almeria.”

While López said Aires de Jaén had a very good har­vest, Haro Rubio admit­ted that the company’s pro­duc­tion was lower than expected in 2024/25.

“The chal­lenges are always many: mon­i­tor­ing the olive grove year-round, ensur­ing the olive trees have enough food and water, treat­ing the olives well, and dur­ing har­vest­ing, remain­ing faith­ful to our prin­ci­ples of strict con­trol over the har­vest­ing and pro­cess­ing tem­per­a­tures, har­vest­ing the fruit very early, being very fast in the milling process and con­tin­u­ing to focus on ensur­ing the cor­rect tem­per­a­ture,” he said.

Andalusia is respon­si­ble for the major­ity of Spanish olive oil pro­duc­tion. Still, farm­ers, millers and dis­trib­u­tors in five of the country’s other regions also cel­e­brated win­ning World Competition acco­lades.

Two pro­duc­ers in the Balearic Islands and Extremadura com­bined to win two awards at the 2025 NYIOOC. Meanwhile, 12 pro­duc­ers and dis­trib­u­tors com­bined to win 17 awards in Catalonia.

Eight pro­duc­ers in the cen­tral region of Castilla-La Mancha won ten awards, includ­ing Olivapalacios. The Ciudad Real-based com­pany earned two Gold Awards for an Arbequina and a Picual.

Ciudad Real-based Olivapalacios continued its legacy of success at the NYIOOC with two Gold Awards. (Photo: Olivapalacios)

“These awards act as an indis­putable seal of qual­ity and attract the atten­tion of con­sumers and dis­trib­u­tors; it can also jus­tify a higher price for the prod­uct, rec­og­niz­ing the excel­lence and effort behind it,” export man­ager Luís Rubio said. 

While he acknowl­edged that the ongo­ing drought and a few heat waves at crit­i­cal moments resulted in increased irri­ga­tion and other chal­lenges, Rubio said the com­pany had a very good har­vest.

“For us, it was a good har­vest; the qual­ity was excel­lent, and in terms of quan­tity, there was a slight increase com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year,” he said.

In north­ern Spain, three pro­duc­ers in Navarre, includ­ing the team at Bodega Nekeas, com­bined to win four awards.

Spain’s north­ern­most pro­ducer of scale, boast­ing 215 hectares of olive groves, earned a Gold Award for its endemic Arróniz mono­va­ri­etal and a Silver for an Arbequina.

In the northerly Nekeas Valley, Bodega Nekeas celebrates its particular terroir despite its challenges. (Photo — Bodega Nekeas).

“Our olive grove and vine­yard are in the Nekeas Valley, the north­ern­most area in Spain for olive grow­ing,” export man­ager Carlos Biurrun said. ​“We are also located at an alti­tude of 420 to 650 meters, which makes for harsher cold and rain con­di­tions. We believe these very con­di­tions cre­ate the unique char­ac­ter­is­tics that make our oils reg­u­larly awarded.”

As a result of the cli­mate and ele­va­tion, he said the company’s main chal­lenge is har­vest­ing the Arbequina in early November before the night­time frost arrives, which can crip­ple a har­vest.

“Interestingly, Arróniz, the native vari­ety, is not sen­si­tive to frost and can be har­vested later,” Biurrun said. ​“I think these awards give good vis­i­bil­ity to extra vir­gin olive oil pro­duced in Navarre, espe­cially to the unknown native vari­ety Arróniz. Navarre has a long tra­di­tion of gourmet food pro­duc­tion, and extra vir­gin olive oil is part of Navarre’s rich offer­ing.”

Back in Andalusia, the founder of Villa Gaspar cel­e­brated win­ning a Gold Award for its medium Picual, its third World Competition recog­ni­tion since 2022.

Villa Gaspar overcame higher labor and agricultural input costs to once again produce a world-class quality Picual monovarietal. (Photo — Villa Gaspar)

“Winning a Gold Award at the NYIOOC was an incred­i­ble honor and deeply emo­tional for us,” José Javier Anguís Horno said. ​“Receiving such a pres­ti­gious recog­ni­tion val­i­dates all the pas­sion, hard work, and care we put into every step of our process. It’s a huge moti­va­tion to con­tinue striv­ing for excel­lence.”

The Úbeda-based pro­ducer said the 2024/25 har­vest marked a strong recov­ery after two incred­i­bly chal­leng­ing sea­sons.

“We finally saw relief from the pro­longed drought, and unlike pre­vi­ous cam­paigns, we were not impacted by extreme weather events such as the hot Saharan winds that can dev­as­tate flow­er­ing,” Anguís said. ​“As a result, both pro­duc­tion and qual­ity improved sig­nif­i­cantly.”

However, he said the cam­paign came with plenty of chal­lenges, includ­ing higher costs for agri­cul­tural imports and an ongo­ing labor short­age, which made it more dif­fi­cult to har­vest quickly and effi­ciently.

See Also:2025 NYIOOC Coverage

“Looking ahead, we antic­i­pate a weaker or mid-range pro­duc­tion due to the nat­ural cycle of the olive tree, known as vecería, where a strong har­vest year is often fol­lowed by a lighter one,” Anguís said. ​“While it’s too early to pre­dict the exact out­come, we’re man­ag­ing the groves care­fully and focus­ing on main­tain­ing tree health and fruit qual­ity.”

Anguís’s Andalusian peers indi­cated that cur­rent con­di­tions make them opti­mistic, but the sum­mer con­di­tions would play a sig­nif­i­cant role. 

After a fruitful 2024 harvest, the producers at Aires de Jaén anticipate another good one later this year. (Photo: Aires de Jaén)

“We’ve had a rainy win­ter, and spring is also bring­ing us very good rain. For now, every­thing points to the 2025/26 sea­son being bet­ter than the 2024/25 sea­son,” López of Aires de Jaén said. ​“Even so, we have to wait because we are always exposed to adverse weather con­di­tions.”

“Everything looks very good right now, although we have to wait and see because of the cli­mate in Almeria, you never know, and we have to be con­stantly alert,” Haro Rubio of OleoAlmanzora added. ​“The flow­er­ing is won­der­ful, so right now we’re very happy with what we see.”

Based on cur­rent con­di­tions in the groves out­side Andalusia, pro­duc­ers expect another good har­vest in 2025/26.

“We antic­i­pate a very good har­vest in terms of quan­tity and qual­ity, con­sid­er­ing the cur­rent con­di­tion of the olive trees,” Rubio of Olivapalacios said.

“The olive grove is doing well. We’ve had a lot of rain since autumn 2024, and it’s con­tin­u­ing,” Biurrun of Bodega Nekeas con­cluded. ​“We hope the tem­per­a­ture rises and calms down by June. The flow­er­ing sea­son and aver­age tem­per­a­ture will deter­mine the har­vest, as there’s usu­ally excess water here (except in 2022).”