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Part of our con­tin­u­ing spe­cial cov­er­age of the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

The Croatian Ministry of Agriculture held a recep­tion for award-win­ning olive oil pro­duc­ers in the nation’s cap­i­tal on July 12 to con­grat­u­late them on their excep­tional suc­cess at the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Minister of Agriculture Marija Vučković and Zdravko Tušek, the State Secretary, also pre­sented the win­ning pro­duc­ers with the country’s draft strate­gic plan for the new Common Agricultural Policy.

Croatian pro­duc­ers com­bined to earn a record-high 67 Gold Awards and 20 Silver Awards at this year’s edi­tion of the NYIOOC, includ­ing 24 awards for organic extra vir­gin olive oils.

Only Italy, Spain and Greece won more awards than Croatia. Among the coun­tries that sub­mit­ted at least 20 entries, Croatian pro­duc­ers enjoyed the high­est suc­cess rate – 83 per­cent.

“I do not exag­ger­ate when I say that this is a his­toric suc­cess of our olive grow­ers, which came as the crown­ing achieve­ment of all pre­vi­ous efforts made by Croatian olive oil pro­duc­ers who insist on the high qual­ity of the final prod­uct,” Vučković said.

“I sin­cerely con­grat­u­late them on their suc­cess and on the pro­mo­tion of Croatian olive grow­ing in the world,” he added. ​“According to the num­ber of awards, Croatian olive grow­ers are at the very top, but if we take into account the size of pro­duc­tion and the ratio of awards and sam­ples sent, I am deeply con­vinced that we are the best.”

For Vučković, these awards help cer­tify Croatia’s qual­ity, along with its pro­tected pro­duc­tion regions. Croatia cur­rently has five olive oils with Protected Designations of Origin sta­tus: Cres, Istria, Korcula, Krk and Solta.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 40,278 hec­to­liters of olive oil were pro­duced in 2020, a decrease of 9.5 per­cent com­pared to 2019, but 6.9 per­cent above the rolling five-year aver­age – 38,117 hec­to­liters.