Croatia’s Brač Olive Oil Receives PDO Status from European Commission

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Olive oil from the Croatian island of Brač received offi­cial Protected Designation of Origin sta­tus from the European Commission on January 31, 2022.

Producers on the island, which sits a few kilo­me­ters off the coast of Dalmatia, began the process to receive for­mal recog­ni­tion of their ​“Bračko olive oil” in August 2018, when the Agricultural Cooperative Supetar sub­mit­ted a request to the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to the def­i­n­i­tion, PDO Brač extra vir­gin olive oil is obtained directly from the olive fruit (Olea europaea L.) exclu­sively by mechan­i­cal means. Furthermore, the indige­nous olive vari­ety Oblica must com­prise at least 80 per­cent of the oil.

The oil is char­ac­ter­ized by a low con­tent of free fatty acids, low per­ox­ide value and a high con­tent of polyphe­nols.

Brač extra vir­gin olive oil has bal­anced bit­ter­ness, spici­ness and fruiti­ness with an aroma of fresh olives, leaves and grass.

All the pos­i­tive and spe­cific char­ac­ter­is­tics of Brač olive oil are equally influ­enced by the olive vari­ety, geo­log­i­cal and cli­matic con­di­tions and the skill of Brač olive grow­ers and oil pro­duc­ers.

People have grown olives on Brač since ancient times. As a result, olives and olive oil have become part of the island’s cul­ture and way of life.

As the island’s most his­tor­i­cally sig­nif­i­cant agri­cul­tural crop, olives became syn­ony­mous with Brač and its most impor­tant olive vari­ety, Oblica. In the World Catalog of Olive Varieties, the vari­ety is even called Bračka.

Brač olive oil has a long, his­tor­i­cal rep­u­ta­tion, with con­tin­u­ous pro­duc­tion on the island since the 16^th cen­tury.

Despite this long tra­di­tion, pro­duc­ers have not been afraid to mod­ern­ize, bring­ing in the lat­est agro-tech­ni­cal pro­ce­dures and milling. This has led the island’s oils to be rec­og­nized at inter­na­tional olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tions.

With this recog­ni­tion, Brač becomes the sixth Croatian extra vir­gin olive oil to receive PDO sta­tus, adding to Cres, Istria, Korcula, Krk and Solta.

Overall, Croatia now has 33 agri­cul­tural and food prod­ucts whose name is reg­is­tered in the European Union as a PDO or a Protected Geographical Indication.