Croatian Celebrities Awarded at Local Olive Oil Quality Contest

From actresses and singers to for­mer pro­fes­sional ath­letes, even Croatian celebri­ties can­not resist the charms of olive oil pro­duc­tion.

Among the win­ners of a local olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion were for­mer asso­ci­a­tion foot­baller Niko Kranjčar and his part­ner, Zrinka Cvitešić, a well-known tele­vi­sion and the­ater actress. The cou­ple owns an olive grove in Donji Humac on the island of Brač.

Singer Emilija Kokić and her hus­band Miljenko Kokot, a tele­vi­sion per­son­al­ity, were also among the gold medal win­ners at the 25^th International Olive Days com­pe­ti­tion in Zadar.

Two hun­dred forty-three sam­ples arrived in the Dalmatian city from all over Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and even Spain.

“We love olives and olive oil, and the best is the one you pro­duce your­self,” Kokić and Kokot said. The cou­ple farms about 80 olive trees planted by Kokić’s father near Ravni Kotar in north­ern Dalmatia.

“We try to pro­duce high-qual­ity, extra vir­gin olive oil,” the cou­ple added, and they suc­ceeded. Their oil won gold in the com­pe­ti­tion, scor­ing 95 out of 100.

Kokić, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1989, said the result had led her to con­sider send­ing an extra vir­gin olive oil sam­ple to the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition after the next har­vest.