Uruguay celebrates olive oil

The award ceremony for the first Mario Solinas Quality Awards, celebrating the highest quality extra virgin olive oils in the southern hemisphere, took place on Thursday 7 November in the auditorium of the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay (LATU) in Montevideo. This milestone underlines the rapid growth of interest in the olive oil and table olive sector among the countries of the southern hemisphere.

The IOC's non-profit, institutional and international Mario Solinas Quality Awards celebrated the winners and finalists of the first Southern Hemisphere edition. A total of twenty-six high quality extra virgin olive oils from four countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil and Uruguay, participated in the competition. Among the winning oils, Uruguay's ‘Colinas de Garzón’ and ‘Pique Roto’ won first prize in the robust green and mature categories, respectively, while Argentina's ‘Isanbaz IVC Obra Don Bosco’ won the medium green category, and Brazil's ‘Estância das Oliveiras - Viamão’ took home the Mario Solinas award in the delicate green category.

Representing the IOC Executive Secretariat, the ceremony was opened by the Executive Director, Jaime Lillo, the Head of the Standardisation and Research Unit, Dr Mercedes Fernández, as well as Gonzalo Aguirre, President of the Olive Association of Uruguay (ASOLUR), and Ruperto Long, Director of LATU. The IOC stressed the importance of promoting the production of high quality extra virgin olive oils and underlined its commitment to fostering a sustainable olive sector globally, in line with which the Organisation launched the Mario Solinas Quality Awards in the southern hemisphere to accommodate the different harvesting periods between hemispheres. The IOC representatives welcomed Uruguay's dedication to the development of its olive sector and encouraged other countries in the southern hemisphere to join the International Agreement and join the IOC in promoting the production of high quality olive oil, protecting consumers and preventing trade barriers. Fernández took the opportunity to explain the technical process, rules and categories of the competition, as well as to present the composition of the international jury for this inaugural southern hemisphere edition. He also visited some of the award-winning olive mills as part of the ceremony.

The Mario Solinas ceremony was held in parallel to the ‘Second Latin American Olive Oil Congress’ (CLAO), organised under the patronage of the IOC by the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of the Republic (Uruguay) and the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (Brazil) on 8-9 November. The congress brought together experts in agronomy, technology, quality and health, and by-products and other applications, including researchers, industry professionals and policy makers, to address the evolving challenges in olive growing in Latin America.

Lillo participated in the opening ceremony together with the Uruguayan Minister of Tourism, Eduardo Sanguinetti; the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, Álvaro Mombrú; and the aforementioned Gonzalo Aguirre. In his speech, the IOC Director praised Latin America's impressive progress in the olive oil sector, highlighting the region's achievements and the quality improvements shown by recent Mario Solinas award winners.

IOC Director Lillo and Uruguayan Foreign Minister Omar Paganini also took the opportunity to hold a bilateral meeting, where they reaffirmed the need for international cooperation to sustainably support both the Uruguayan and global olive sector.

Uruguay has been an active member of the IOC Council of Members since 2013.

Uruguay's commitment to cultivating a vibrant olive sector is a testament to its dedication to quality and sustainability, and its close collaboration with the IOC reinforces its pivotal role in advancing the standards and international reach of high quality olive oil in the southern hemisphere.