Eliada, the most awarded olive oil under the Romanian brand (P)

un entrepreneur from Craiova achieves an unprecedented feat: he created a Romanian brand 100% for a product obtained from an ingredient that does not grow here and wins international awards on the conveyor belt. Olive oil Eliad took, in 2023, both under its own brand and that of the processor, gold and silver medals at competitions in Athens, Berlin, London, Tokyo and New York.

Cătălin Adam is the man who laid the foundations of the concept Eliad, a domestic brand of olive oil. That is, the Romanian entrepreneur picks olives from orchards in Greece, negotiates with the processors, contracts experts in the field, for example master blenders - "ghesfsignostis" (or connoisseur of tastes, in translation), bottles and, most importantly, sticks a label on the products that makes us proud. Thus he created a Romanian product from an ingredient that does not grow here. Then, it sent samples of its SuperPremium oil to some of the most important profile competitions around the globe and has already won several important medals, becoming the most awarded Romanian olive oil brand. Both the award-winning oil and other related products can be ordered on eliada.eu

"I started the business together with my wife, following the model of Greek family businesses. Who knows, maybe at some point I will also involve the children... We had a small European funding to set up a store in Craiova, which we use as a showroom. We did it right at the beginning of the pandemic, unfortunately, in October 2019. It was complicated during the whole period, people didn't understand what was so special about our oil, without being able to taste it, we weren't allowed to do tastings. The customers, however, were the friends to whom I had brought oil in previous years, and they knew what it was all about. They supported and promoted us so that our customer base grew and we could endure.

The idea had come to me two years before, as in any good story... by accident! I was in a supermarket in Thessaloniki, at the end of September 2017, together with a Greek friend and business partner. I was looking for an extra virgin olive oil for myself to take home. I was looking at the multitude of boxes on the shelf and waiting for a little help from my friend who was carelessly tapping the phone. When I asked him to recommend something, he said he had no idea, he got it from his grandfather, but an acquaintance had good oil for sale. I seem to hear him: come on, this is lamp oil! In time, I kept buying olive oil from the locals, I couldn't say producers, most likely they had some olives of their own and they went somewhere to make the oil, their families ate it and the rest they sold to tourists. Sometimes the oil was good, sometimes it was rancid, reminding me of that old lard that was left at the end of the summer on the walls of my grandmother's meatloaf. You know the smell! It was a lottery, the oil was in canisters, you had no way of knowing what you were getting. I didn't really want to try again, but the guy convinced me, telling me that the oil was special. When I arrived at this friend of a friend, I was impressed. It had an oil mill – that is, a processing station. It was the end of September and they were starting to make the first batches of green olive oil. It was my first contact with fresh oil. Delicious. I took it for myself, stopped by friends, proud of the discovery. Somehow, in no time, everyone around me started asking. I have been working in consultancy for European funds for many years, and during the period I often went to Greece, there was an economic crisis there, Romania had become promising, I had business meetings almost every month. At each return the trunk was full of oil for friends. That's how the idea arose, to bring extra virgin olive oil from Greece, to make a business.

Over time I established a partnership relationship with the one who had the oil mill. He was retired, he had been a professor of food chemistry at the University of Thessaloniki, and his great-grandfather and grandfather and father had made oil in his family. He advised me about oils, I began to learn to notice the differences in fragrance, taste, consistency and to appreciate robust oils. We chose the packaging of the first products together and thought about the design of the labels. I keep a special gratitude to this man, who today is no longer among us", says Cătălin Adam.

What does Romanian olive oil brand mean?

"From the beginning I realized that, instead of bringing and promoting other brands, which apart from discounts do not offer anything, it is better to create our own brand. Thus, any expenditure turns into an investment in the brand.

Investing in Greece in those years was not a very good idea. The crisis, high taxes, money was difficult to circulate. I, even though I speak Greek, am not Greek. The choice was clear: Romania. It was more difficult with the name, but one morning I had a moment of inspiration: it will be called Eliada. Ellia in Greek means olive, we could already see how it was taking shape, as a marketing idea "Eliada" - "olive tree".

We have decided that our brand will be a gourmet, high quality one and that we will only sell under it our oils as well as other non-industrial products that we and our customers will test beforehand.

I say our oils and it sounds a little weird. That's right, olives don't grow in Romania. Some would say "yet". I grow up in Greece. And the oil is still made there, at most a few hours after picking. But we are the ones who have the product. Basically, we are entrepreneurs in the true sense of the word. We buy olives, hire services, pay specialists. The technical sheet of the product belongs to us.

So we buy olives, sometimes even from the olives, that is, we also paid for the picking. Sometimes we buy them already picked, but we have to be sure they were picked that day. We then pay for processing, we collaborate there with a first-class processor that has a modern extraction station, properly laid out and properly sanitized. If you want to preserve an aroma and a taste similar to those of the previous year, you can resort to a blend between oils obtained from different varieties of olives, which is made by a master blender. Our Ghefsignostis is a jury member at international competitions, with over 15 years of experience in the production and conditioning of extra virgin oils. The obtained extra virgin oil is bottled on request in our packaging, located at the processor and prepared in time. To preserve for a longer time, the air in the mouth of the package is replaced with an inert gas, usually argon.

Eliada extra virgin oils are made, stored and bottled only in Greece. Before bottling, analyzes are made to determine the chemical parameters - acidity, waxes, peroxides, concentrations of oxidative elements (K232), biological age (K270) and purity (DK). For two of our oils, we also analyze the concentration of polyphenols, antioxidants with an active role in maintaining health", explains the entrepreneur from Craiova.

What prizes did they get?

When we talk about awards, as with wines, we have to make a distinction between the awards taken by a processor (the one who extracts the olive oil), by a brand and by a specific oil. An oil can win a prize only in the year in which it was submitted to the competition, usually a few months after production. A brand, collects awards over time. A processor can take medals in profile competitions with any of the oils it produces. Although they do not market, the processor usually has its own brand

In 2023 the brand Eliad with the SuperPremium oil was awarded a silver medal at the Athena International Olive Oil Competition, a gold medal at the Berlin Global Olive Oil Awards and a gold medal in London.

"In the past, the Eliada brand has won a gold medal at the Athena IOOC, but under the name of the processor at that time, it was an uncorrected mistake by the organizer who did not understand how an oil produced in Greece is sent to the competition by a company from Romania" explains the entrepreneur.

Oil processor Eliad, Agriston Ltd., obtained awards this year with similar oils, produced from the same olive varieties, and in Tokyo (one of the most important competitions for processors), two silver medals) and in New York, a gold medal.

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