Lakonia’s Xenios Triumphant at World Competition

Greek producer Xenios has won a second-straight award at the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Being part of creating something good for human beings and given recognition in prestigious contests is equally important as seeing people tasting and loving our olive oil.

Nikos Katsos, CEO

Situated in Lakonia, the company earned a second Gold Award for its 8K Greek brand, an organic medium-intensity Koroneiki.

"Creating olive oil is beautiful," chief executive Nikos Katsos said. "Creating something good for human beings and given recognition in prestigious contests is equally important as seeing people tasting and loving our olive oil. This keeps us going."

In the 2022/23 crop year, Xenios produced 15,000 liters of organic extra virgin olive oil using traditional methods. Katsos said every year comes with challenges when focusing on quality instead of quantity.

"Focusing on premium olive oils creates different types of problems than the ones faced in mass-scale production," he said. "So we faced some cost increases which we could observe for the time."

Held each spring in New York, the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition 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 in the Official Guide to the World's Best Olive Oils.