Athena International Olive Oil Competition now among the most important globally!
The evaluation of olive oil samples for the 5th Athena International Olive Oil Competition was completed with great success at The Petrasa Tower in Spata on 11-13 June 2020, leaving the planned location of Lesbos for next year. This year, the judges were all Greek, while the competition also hosted four top chefs. The best olive oils, which were awarded with double gold, gold, silver or bronze, as well as 12 special prizes, were announced on 22 June 2020.
Despite all the adversity created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the director of the event, Maria Katsouli, says she is satisfied with how things went and she is delighted with the support of the competition by the Lesbos olive growers, who this year sent in 44 samples. The number of samples tested were 430, 70 more than last year; 16 foreign countries participated, 6 of which for the first time.
Another change to the competition, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, was the establishment of a judging panel consisting entirely of Greek sensory evaluators. As Dinos Stergidis, President of the competition, mentioned. "We are very pleased, because we were given the opportunity to invite many new judges and for them to see how we work, but also because we are interested in giving opportunities to Greek sensory evaluators to participate in an international competition. In this way, they will gain experience both to return to us, but also to go to other competitions abroad. We consider it very important for Greece to have international participation, not only with its products, but also with its people."
It is worth noting that the competition is fierce in international olive oil competitions, as the best olive oils are judged without comparison with previous years’ samples. "Olive oils were assessed based on international criteria. Therefore, the Greek olive oils competed qualitatively with the best foreign ones. So, what the Greek producer participating in the competition will gain, is whether its oil meets the international quality criteria, that is, whether it will be able to compete on the international market" noted Mr. Stergidis.
The competition is now among the most important in the world and is certainly the most up-and-coming, a result of the professionalism of the organising committee. In fact, precisely in order to maximum its reliability, Athena adopted the evaluation process by means of portable computers with special software designed specifically for this purpose. "This year we had more samples. It was a better year and had a positive impact on the producers. Also, the competition is in the 5th year, so it is acquiring more fame, prestige, and credibility. We have repeated participation from many great olive mills abroad".
Text taken from the article in Agro News
See the full article here https://www.agronews.gr/branding/etairika-nea/184992/stous-pleon-pio-simadikous-tou-kosmou-sugatalegetai-o-diethnis-diagonismos-athena-international-olive-oil/?fbclid=IwAR3x19AhQ3oD1XK2AxMz4AO0PsvVV9Axe4gD75ELmnfWG97SE4f0hk_oJSU