Croatian Olive Growers Celebrate Their Historic Success

Summary

Croatian olive oil pro­duc­ers achieved the title of vice-cham­pi­ons of the world at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, secur­ing 125 awards with an 87 per­cent suc­cess rate, sur­pass­ing major olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­tries like Greece, Spain, and the United States. Despite fac­ing severe cli­matic chal­lenges, Croatian grow­ers cred­ited their suc­cess to an arti­sanal approach to olive farm­ing and empha­sized the value of high-qual­ity olive oil in pro­mot­ing health and pre­vent­ing dis­eases.

At the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, Croatian olive grow­ers achieved their strongest per­for­mance yet, claim­ing sec­ond place in the global awards tally and out­pac­ing sev­eral Mediterranean pow­er­houses.

Competing among entries from 30 coun­tries across six con­ti­nents, Croatian pro­duc­ers secured 125 awards, includ­ing 101 Gold and 24 Silver dis­tinc­tions. Only Italy ranked higher, with 200 awards from a much larger pool of 258 entries. Croatian grow­ers, who sub­mit­ted 143 entries, achieved an extra­or­di­nary 87 per­cent suc­cess rate — the high­est of all major par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­tries.

“We are sec­ond in the world,” said Ivica Vlatković, a well-known olive grower from Novigrad and one of Croatia’s suc­cess­ful entrants at this year’s com­pe­ti­tion.

Success Across Croatia

The achieve­ment is cel­e­brated from Savudrija to Prevlaka, with grow­ers from all regions con­tribut­ing to the result. Croatian oils out­per­formed those from Greece (96 awards), Spain (93), the United States (92), Portugal (34), Turkey (30), France (19), and Tunisia (18).

“This suc­cess is thanks to all our olive grow­ers who sub­mit­ted their oils to this pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tion,” said Vlatković, who earned two Gold Awards this year for his Fortica Coratina — Leccino and Fortica Šoltanka brands.

Along with large pro­duc­ers like Avistria d.o.o. and Oleum Maris, Vlatković stands out. Since first enter­ing the NYIOOC, his oils have col­lected 17 awards, rein­forc­ing his rep­u­ta­tion for excel­lence.

The grower said that the two most recent Gold Awards con­firm that he has main­tained a high stan­dard of qual­ity, and he hopes the suc­cess of Croatian pro­duc­ers at this year’s event will inspire a new gen­er­a­tion of young olive grow­ers.

Overcoming Difficult Conditions

This year’s achieve­ments were even more remark­able given the severe cli­matic chal­lenges olive grow­ers faced: extreme heat­waves dur­ing the cru­cial oil accu­mu­la­tion period, fol­lowed by hefty rains just before har­vest.

Vlatković said the key was extract­ing qual­ity despite these weather extremes. He empha­sized that Croatia’s strength lies in the arti­sanal approach to olive farm­ing. Unlike vast indus­trial plan­ta­tions, Croatian grow­ers can per­son­ally tend to each tree, adjust­ing care accord­ing to sea­sonal needs.

Large plan­ta­tions are much more vul­ner­a­ble to cli­mate extremes, he explained. In Croatia, grow­ers’ close atten­tion to each tree helps main­tain the high­est stan­dards of qual­ity, even in chal­leng­ing years.

Defending the Value of Croatian Olive Oil

Addressing crit­i­cism that Croatian olive oils are among the most expen­sive in the world, Vlatković pointed to the com­pe­ti­tion results, not­ing that Croatia’s oils out­per­formed those from all major Mediterranean pro­duc­ing coun­tries, includ­ing Greece, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, and Tunisia.

He said the path to a liter of high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil requires not only knowl­edge and ded­i­ca­tion but also favor­able weather con­di­tions and con­sid­er­able luck. Success depends on sur­viv­ing the crit­i­cal months with­out pests or extreme weather, find­ing skilled labor for the har­vest, ensur­ing care­ful pro­cess­ing at the mill, and over­com­ing con­sumer habits that still often favor cheaper, lower-qual­ity oils.

Vlatković stressed that qual­ity olive oil plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in pro­mot­ing health, not­ing that oils con­tain­ing at least 250 mg of phe­no­lic com­pounds per kilo­gram meet EU food safety rec­om­men­da­tions for pre­vent­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar and malig­nant dis­eases. Unfortunately, he added, few con­sumers con­sis­tently seek out oils of this qual­ity.

He empha­sized that chang­ing con­sumer habits requires edu­ca­tion, work­shops, and guided tast­ings to teach peo­ple how to rec­og­nize excel­lent oils.

To those who argue that Croatian olive oils are over­priced, Vlatković sug­gested they try grow­ing olives and pro­duc­ing oil them­selves to appre­ci­ate the ded­i­ca­tion and dif­fi­culty involved.

A Growing Legacy

In small Croatia, a coun­try with thou­sands of islands, it seems that almost every­one can pro­duce world-class extra vir­gin oil.

Today, offi­cial sta­tis­tics show that Croatia has nearly as many olive trees as peo­ple — an apt reflec­tion of the coun­try’s deep con­nec­tion to this noble Mediterranean plant and its grow­ing role as a leader in qual­ity olive oil pro­duc­tion.