Croatia Wins Olive Picking Championship

A team from Croatia has won the sixth edi­tion of the World Olive Picking Championship on the Adriatic island of Brač.

The unique event took place in olive groves around Postira, on the north­ern coast of the Croatian island. 

“We cel­e­brate the olive and spread the olive cul­ture world­wide,” Ivana Jelinčić, direc­tor of the Postira Tourist Board, which is also the main orga­nizer of the cham­pi­onship, told Olive Oil Times.

Eleven teams from European coun­tries and a team of dig­i­tal nomads based on the island par­tic­i­pated in the event, which the Croatian team won for the sec­ond time.

Four local restau­ra­teurs rep­re­sented team Croatia. ​“Olive farm­ing is in our blood. We picked as best we know how,” said Marina Martinić, not hid­ing her sat­is­fac­tion after help­ing the host regain the title for the first time since 2017.

The task for the com­peti­tors was not easy, as all har­vest­ing was done by hand. Each team, com­posed of four mem­bers (two women and two men), picked as many olives as pos­si­ble in 45 min­utes.

The team from Croatia won by a con­sid­er­able mar­gin, har­vest­ing 13.2 more kilo­grams of olives than sec­ond-place Montenegro, which won the 2019 edi­tion of the event. Poland, which won the title in 2021 and 2022, did not send a team this year.

While only one team earned the title of olive pick­ing cham­pion, par­tic­i­pants said they enjoyed the pos­i­tive energy and joy of being part of a com­mu­nity tra­di­tion.

“I am in Croatia for the first time, and I am excited and happy to be here and sup­port this won­der­ful project,” said Virginia Scapinelli, from Italy.

During the cham­pi­onship, a quiz about olive grow­ing also was held in the olive grove. Representatives of Montenegro won the mini-event, and each received a watch made of the island’s famous white lime­stone as a prize.

Away from the com­pe­ti­tion, par­tic­i­pants could taste locally pro­duced extra vir­gin olive oil, which received a Protected Designation of Origin cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2022, visit other groves and local mills and par­take in din­ners and other evening activ­i­ties.

Jelinčić said the idea is for the vis­i­tors to enjoy an immer­sive expe­ri­ence of the island’s cul­ture.

“We are prov­ing that agri­cul­ture and tourism can go together,” she said. ​“This is how we ensure an authen­tic tourist expe­ri­ence and a healthy and pleas­ant life for the locals.”

Along with the com­peti­tors, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Poetica dis­tillery from Vrgorec in cen­tral Dalmatia came to this year’s event. 

In coop­er­a­tion with TZO Postira, they designed and pro­duced an exclu­sive edi­tion of 200 bot­tles of gin with Postir olive leaves. Both the gin and its pro­duc­ers fit per­fectly into the unusual atmos­phere of the event.

Kaisu Koskela, a Finnish woman from the Digital Nomads team, par­tic­i­pated in the com­pe­ti­tion for the third time. ​“Olives have mul­ti­ple sym­bolic mean­ings that align well with dig­i­tal nomads,” she said. ​“We are happy that we can rep­re­sent them here.” 

Jelinčić cel­e­brated the even­t’s suc­cess, which the Creative Tourism Network awarded as the best cre­ative expe­ri­ence in tourism in 2019 and the FITUR tourism fair in Madrid rec­og­nized with an award in 2020.

“The award is a great recog­ni­tion, but it is an oblig­a­tion to keep improv­ing,” Jelinčić said.