Early Harvests, Ethics and the Pursuit of Exceptional Olive Oil

Summary

Sandi Babič, a lead­ing Slovenian olive grower, is con­sid­ered a pio­neer of excel­lence in Slovenian olive oil pro­duc­tion. He empha­sizes the impor­tance of eth­i­cal stan­dards and early har­vest­ing for achiev­ing high-qual­ity olive oil, and believes that Slovenian oils have the poten­tial to be as good as or bet­ter than Italy’s. Babič also stresses the impor­tance of cre­ativ­ity, bal­ance, and a struc­tured process in pro­duc­ing top-qual­ity olive oil, while warn­ing against the neg­a­tive impact of unreg­u­lated gray-mar­ket sales and the poten­tial chal­lenges of olive pro­duc­tion in the face of global sus­tain­abil­ity issues.

In Slovenia, the small European coun­try between Croatia and Italy, nearly every­one knows Luka Dončić. Many also know Sandi Babič, a lead­ing Slovenian olive grower and owner of a cold-press mill located on the out­skirts of Koper, the largest city on the Slovenian coast.

Babič is often described as a pio­neer of excel­lence in Slovenian olive oil. He prefers a dif­fer­ent def­i­n­i­tion.

“The real pio­neers are the peo­ple I learned from,” he said, point­ing to researchers at Slovenia’s Institute for Olive Growing. ​“I see myself as an advo­cate for excel­lence, some­one who tries to lead by exam­ple and encour­age Slovenian olive grow­ers to inter­nal­ize mod­ern global trends in olive farm­ing and olive oil pro­duc­tion.”

According to Babič, clear eth­i­cal stan­dards and shared rules of con­duct are essen­tial if Slovenian olive oil is to gain wider inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion.

Excellence Begins With Responsibility

Asked how excel­lence is achieved, Babič pointed to Italy’s long-run­ning pro­mo­tion of the Mediterranean diet, a cam­paign that reshaped agri­cul­ture, food cul­ture, tourism and man­u­fac­tur­ing.

“Extra vir­gin olive oil was the cor­ner­stone of that suc­cess,” he said. ​“It became a global sym­bol of health, qual­ity and lifestyle.”

Slovenia and Croatia, he added, have no nat­ural dis­ad­van­tage.

“Our geog­ra­phy, soils and cli­mate give us the poten­tial to pro­duce oils equal to — or bet­ter than — Italy’s,” Babič said. ​“Excellence is not cre­ated by laws. It comes from con­science, ethics and per­sonal respon­si­bil­ity.”

A Calling, Not a Business

Babič began olive grow­ing in 2009, a deci­sion he describes as bold and intu­itive rather than cal­cu­lated.

“Olive grow­ing isn’t a job — it’s a voca­tion,” he said. ​“The groves and the mill don’t belong to me. I belong to them.”

In 2015, he com­pleted the pro­duc­tion chain by open­ing Uljara Babič, equip­ping it with machin­ery from Officine Meccaniche Toscane and com­mit­ting him­self fully to pro­duc­ing what he calls ​“the best of the best.”

Why Early Harvest Matters

Babič is a strong pro­po­nent of early har­vest­ing, even at the cost of lower yields.

“Yield is not a mea­sure of qual­ity,” he said. ​“If a grower focuses only on yield, the result is more oil, but oil with­out char­ac­ter.”

Research shows that oils from early har­vests con­tain higher lev­els of polyphe­nols, along with brighter color and more pro­nounced bit­ter­ness and pun­gency. However, Babič warned against rigid cal­en­dar-based har­vest­ing.

“Early har­vest does not mean unripe olives,” he said. ​“It means har­vest­ing at the opti­mal moment for the vari­ety, loca­tion and sea­son.”

Varieties, Creativity and Balance

Babič’s groves include native Istrian vari­eties such as Belica, Buža and Rošinjola, along­side Leccino, Frantoio and Coratina.

“There is no room for rigid­ity,” he said. ​“Every grower should value local vari­eties but also remain open to exper­i­men­ta­tion. Creativity is essen­tial in pro­duc­ing great olive oil.”

Cold Pressing Is Not Enough

Babič is skep­ti­cal of over­sim­pli­fied rules, such as focus­ing solely on extrac­tion tem­per­a­tures.

“If olives arrive over­ripe, dam­aged or already warm, tem­per­a­ture con­trol becomes irrel­e­vant,” he said. ​“From poor fruit, you can­not make great oil.”

Quality, he empha­sized, begins in the grove and depends on a struc­tured process that includes cul­ti­va­tion, har­vest, milling and stor­age.

Craft, Science and Trust

Babič believes the best results come from com­bin­ing for­mal sci­en­tific knowl­edge with expe­ri­ence and intu­ition.

“Pure sci­ence with­out instinct is incom­plete,” he said. ​“A skilled miller who truly under­stands the machin­ery can shape bit­ter­ness, pun­gency and fruiti­ness while pre­serv­ing nutri­tional value.”

That approach has earned Uljara Babič the trust of grow­ers from Slovenia, Croatia and Italy, many of whom travel long dis­tances to mill their olives there.

Prices, Fraud and the Gray Market

Responding to crit­i­cism that Slovenian and Croatian oils are expen­sive, Babič argued that the price must be viewed in con­text.

“A bot­tle of wine is con­sumed in a meal, while a liter of olive oil lasts a house­hold a month,” he said. ​“Quality takes years, not weeks.”

He warned that unreg­u­lated gray-mar­ket sales dis­tort prices and under­mine con­sumer trust, call­ing for sys­tem­atic mon­i­tor­ing to address olive oil fraud.

Sustainability Beyond Marketing

Babič expressed skep­ti­cism toward super­fi­cial notions of ​“olive oil cul­ture,” argu­ing that true sus­tain­abil­ity lies in pre­serv­ing land­scapes and local com­mu­ni­ties.

He pointed to the plant­ing of mil­lions of olive trees in Istria as an exam­ple of how olive farm­ing can pro­tect ecosys­tems, bio­di­ver­sity and qual­ity of life.

A Challenging Future

Looking ahead, Babič warned that olive groves across the Mediterranean may increas­ingly com­pete with solar farms for land, par­tic­u­larly in regions such as Puglia.

“In the name of global sus­tain­abil­ity, we risk destroy­ing the sus­tain­abil­ity of local life,” he said.

He expects olive pro­duc­tion to expand fur­ther in North Africa and the Southern Hemisphere, while Slovenian pro­duc­ers will need to adapt cul­ti­va­tion and pro­cess­ing meth­ods to cli­mate change.

“The future depends on our will­ing­ness to change,” Babič con­cluded, ​“with­out aban­don­ing qual­ity.”