ATHENA International Olive Oil Competition

ATHENA IOOC is a constantly growing international olive oil competition and the only one of its kind organized in Greece. It has gained the trust of hundreds of producers from all olive growing countries and the respect of the most renowned international olive oil judges. Some of them have even ranked it among the three most important international olive oil competitions in the world for several years.

In 2023, its 8th edition will take place in the city of Kavala, which belongs administratively to the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, a region where olive groves are developing significantly.

Judges

Athena competition is what we mean by quality and it is one of the three or four most important in the world.

Jose Maria Penco

Spain

The judging quality is really-really high and the organization is really good as well.

Dr. Richard Gawel

Australia

Athena adds extra value to awards because it takes place in the country where olive oil comes from.

Dr. Kiki Zinoviadou

Greece

If you win a prize you are going to sell you oil better.

Johnny Madge

United Kingdom

It is absolutely one of the best competitions in the world.

Kostas Liris

Greece

I think it’s very important that olive oils be tasted by judges from many different countries, as is the case with Athena.

Maria de la Paz Aguilera Herrera

Spain

WHY
IN
GREECE.

Greece was the first country in the world to harness the potential of the olive tree and to elevate olive oil into a cultural product and it is the country with the highest per capita annual consumption of olive oil.

Just as long distance runners aspire to participate in the classic Marathon run or great actors dream of performing at the ancient theater of Epidaurus, dedicated olive oil producers dream of the opportunity to compete in the land where everything started.

The cultivation of olive trees in the region of Kavala has always existed.

References in the Odyssey attest to the cultivation of the olive tree since the Homeric years.

The Great Clubhouse of Kavala was built in 1909 and was inaugurated the following year as a clubhouse of the city’s Greek community. It is built in the Austrian Baroque style, being an excellent example of it, evoking elements of the Vienna “Musikverein” Music Hall, especially in its honey-colored hues. In later years the building housed the banks of Athens and Ioniki, the latter having done its first renovation. Following that, it became an army officers’ club and then a club for the city’s tobacco merchants. More recently it was a public library and a social care center. Now days it is used by the City of Kavala as a venue for cultural events.