Greek Granite Co. Mines Winning Olive Oils

Greek producer Kiriakidis Marbles & Granites has won two Silver Awards at the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world's most prestigious olive oil quality contest.

We are thrilled to have two winning olive oils, as it is our first year of participation. We are not commercial producers, but love to create art. It is a special honor for us to have won awards.

Madia Angelakaki, marketing manager

In the 2020/21 crop year, the company produced 2,000 liters of extra virgin olive oil in East Macedonia and Thrace using traditional methods. Kiriakidis Marbles & Granites earned the two Silver Awards for its FHL Blessed Products Δ9, a medium Megaritiki, and its FHL Blessed Products E7, a medium blend.

"We are thrilled to have two winning olive oils, as it is our first year of participation," Madia Angelakaki, the company's marketing manager, said. "We are not commercial producers, but love to create art."

"It is a special honor for us to have won awards," she added. "Our company is active in quarrying and the production of white marble in Greece, the passion of creating unique beauty flows in our veins."

As with many other producers, the Covid-19 pandemic created a series of challenges for Kiriakidis Marbles & Granites to overcome in the 2020 harvest.

"The pandemic made it difficult to have available and coordinate the works and the harvest," Angelakaki said. "Despite this fact, we managed to collect all our olives unripe and to create four different monocultivars and blend olive oils, with spicy aromas."

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, held each spring in New York, is the world's largest and most prestigious olive oil contest. Its annual listing of award winners is considered the authoritative guide to the year’s best extra virgin olive oils.

The complete list of winners can be viewed on the Official Index of the World's Best Olive Oils.