Croatian Producers Share Secrets Behind Their Award-Winning Success

After a chal­leng­ing har­vest, Croatian olive grow­ers are sat­is­fied with their achieve­ments at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Producers from the south­east­ern European coun­try earned the fourth-high­est num­ber of awards at the com­pe­ti­tion — 80 from 97 entries. According to data from the Olive Oil Times World Ranking, only Italy (148), the United States (96), and Spain (83) won more awards.

However, farm­ers and millers quickly pointed out that their 82 per­cent suc­cess rate was the high­est of any coun­try that sub­mit­ted more than ten extra vir­gin olive oil sam­ples to the World Competition.

Croatian pro­duc­ers cel­e­brated their suc­cess after adverse cir­cum­stances, includ­ing extreme cli­matic con­di­tions and pests.

Cold weather dur­ing the spring, fol­lowed by rain at the moment of flow­er­ing and pol­li­na­tion, resulted in lower fruit set on the trees. This was fol­lowed by the emer­gence of the olive fruit fly ahead of the har­vest, which impacted the quan­tity and qual­ity of the olive oil.

“We won fourth place in a strong com­pe­ti­tion with much fewer reg­is­tered oils than our main com­peti­tors,” said Ante Vulin, the owner of Antino, which earned a Gold Award for a medium Oblica.

The pro­ducer grows 1,000 olive trees, of which 550 are in pro­duc­tion, along the shores of Lake Vrana, Croatia’s largest lake, in the north­ern Dalmatian region of Pakoštane.

Along with Vulin, three other pro­duc­ers from the munic­i­pal­ity, which is slightly smaller than Manhattan, com­bined with five World Competition awards.

Tomislav Čudina of Olea Viola earned a Gold Award for a medium blend; Vinko Lalin of OPG Lalin earned two Silver Awards for a blend and Oblica; and Mario Barešić of Skipper Drage earned a Gold Award for an Oblica.

“We don’t have large groves or quan­ti­ties of oil,” Vulin said. ​“We don’t even have mills. But we have a tra­di­tion, a nat­ural way of grow­ing healthy fruits and pro­duc­ing pre­mium oil that we get by cold press­ing.”

Ivica Vlatković, the pres­i­dent of the county olive grow­ers’ asso­ci­a­tion and an award-win­ning pro­ducer from nearby Novigrad, also hailed the country’s immense suc­cess despite its small size.

Croatia is home to about 3.8 mil­lion peo­ple. According to the European Commission, the coun­try pro­duced 3,500 tons of olive oil in the 2023/24 crop year, about ten per­cent below the aver­age of the pre­vi­ous four years.

“Croatia is a small coun­try but a super­power in the qual­ity of olive oils, which is con­firmed year after year,” said Vlatković, widely con­sid­ered the best olive grower among doc­tors and the best doc­tor among olive grow­ers.

Since 2017, he has also earned 15 awards at the NYIOOC, mak­ing him the coun­try’s most suc­cess­ful pro­ducer at the com­pe­ti­tion.

Since Tomislav Duvnjak, owner of Vodice, launched a coor­di­nated effort to orga­nize and help finance small Dalmatian pro­duc­ers to send entries to New York in 2021, Croatia has con­sis­tently been one of the biggest win­ners at the World Competition.

Vlatković said that he and other pro­duc­ers now ​“live for the day” when Croatia wins the most awards at the com­pe­ti­tion.

“Olive oils come to New York from all over the world where olives are grown,” he said. ​“That’s why it rep­re­sents the world cham­pi­onship in eval­u­at­ing the olive oil qual­ity. On a global level, Croatian olive oils have con­firmed their high qual­ity for years regard­ing the num­ber of oils sent and awarded.”

Vlatković said Croatian pro­duc­ers are encour­aged to see that they are achiev­ing results sim­i­lar to their coun­ter­parts in more well-known olive-grow­ing coun­tries.

He attrib­uted the country’s dis­pro­por­tional suc­cess to sev­eral fac­tors, includ­ing the men­tal­ity of Croatian pro­duc­ers, many of whom are small farm­ers who ded­i­cate them­selves to car­ing for a small num­ber of trees.

Another key to the coun­try’s suc­cess is the pro­fes­sional edu­ca­tion pro­vided to these olive grow­ers through regional and coun­try asso­ci­a­tions.

Additionally, sig­nif­i­cant effort has been made to build high-qual­ity oil mills with suf­fi­cient capac­ity to process what is har­vested on the same day.

Vlatković also praised the role of local tast­ing pan­els in help­ing olive grow­ers iden­tify defects and deter­mine their causes.

Finally, he said many grow­ers enter numer­ous local and national events, cre­at­ing a com­pet­i­tive spirit and a cul­ture of improve­ment in the sec­tor.

“If, instead of 97, Croatian olive grow­ers had sent at least as many of their oils to the NYIOOC [as pro­duc­ers from other coun­tries did], I’m sure they would have won more Gold Awards and thus shown every­one how far Croatia has come in the pro­duc­tion of top-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oils,” Vlatković said.

He added that con­di­tions look good in the groves ahead of the 2024/25 crop year,

“The sit­u­a­tion in the olive groves is promis­ing,” Vlatković said. ​“Spring brought enough mois­ture. The tem­per­a­tures are almost ideal, so the olive trees are full of flow­ers.”

“We also expect good pol­li­na­tion,” he added. ​“The har­vest is still far away, but there is every chance we will have a suc­cess­ful cam­paign. Much more suc­cess­ful than last year, which means more oil at the world’s largest qual­ity assess­ment in New York.”