In Potoci, a Tasting Room Signals a New Era for Bosnian Olive Oil

Summary

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s olive oil indus­try is flour­ish­ing, with the open­ing of the coun­try’s first olive oil tast­ing room, Paxa House, in Potoci near Mostar, aim­ing to edu­cate vis­i­tors about olive oil and sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture while allow­ing them to sam­ple and pur­chase local prod­ucts. Efforts to inte­grate the coun­try’s olive oil indus­try into the inter­na­tional con­text have included seek­ing European Union recog­ni­tion for Zlatne Kapi, with Herzegovinian pro­duc­ers win­ning mul­ti­ple awards at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s olive oil indus­try is expe­ri­enc­ing a renais­sance, with local pro­duc­ers achiev­ing inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion and expand­ing cul­ti­va­tion efforts. 

Now, the country’s first olive oil tast­ing room, Paxa House, has opened in Potoci near the Herzegovinian cap­i­tal of Mostar.

Located in the con­vent of the School Sisters of St. Francis, Mladen Todorovic from the sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture advo­cacy group Green & Healthy BiH expects the spot to gain trac­tion due to its loca­tion on the main tourist route from the national cap­i­tal, Sarajevo, to Mostar.

The archi­tects of Paxa House stated that the goal of the tast­ing room is to edu­cate vis­i­tors about olive oil and sus­tain­able agri­cul­ture, allow­ing them to sam­ple and pur­chase extra-vir­gin olive oil and other prod­ucts from local pro­duc­ers.

Paxa House, which trans­lates to ​“House of Peace,” is the lat­est of 12 stops on an olive oil route through Herzegovina, which is respon­si­ble for vir­tu­ally all of the country’s olive oil pro­duc­tion.

“This suc­cess pro­vides a gen­uine impe­tus for greater col­lab­o­ra­tion among our olive grow­ers in their pur­suit of excep­tional extra vir­gin olive oils,” said Marko Ivanković, direc­tor of the Federal Agro-Mediterranean Institute (FAZ).

Interest in olive cul­ti­va­tion has been increas­ing in recent years, dri­ven by local grow­ers and offi­cials seek­ing to develop agri­tourism in con­junc­tion with olive cul­ti­va­tion.

Emphasizing qual­ity has been one of the strate­gies employed by local author­i­ties in their pur­suit of European Union recog­ni­tion for Zlatne Kapi, in the form of a Protected Designation of Origin cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

After receiv­ing approval from local offi­cials in September 2024, the group behind the PDO sub­mit­ted its appli­ca­tion to the European Union on May 15^th.

Currently, only one other prod­uct from Bosnia and Herzegovina has a geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion, in the form of a Protected Geographical Indication, for Livanjski sir, a type of cheese made from a mix­ture of sheep and cow’s milk.

Integrating the country’s fledg­ling olive oil indus­try into the inter­na­tional con­text has been another key aspect of this effort, with the country’s ambas­sador to Spain announc­ing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s inten­tion to join the International Olive Council at the begin­ning of the year.

These efforts fol­low the inau­gu­ra­tion of the Center for Olive Growing in Mostar in March 2024, which was par­tially funded by the local cham­ber of com­merce.

“What we have tried through this project is to keep our autochtho­nous vari­eties of olives in Herzegovina, but also to intro­duce some new ones, all to deter­mine which ones are most suit­able for our area, and ulti­mately get­ting the best qual­ity oil,” said Mia Glamuzina, legal and eco­nomic direc­tor of the cham­ber.

Bojan Spasojević, who is the head of the cen­ter, said Spanish, Greek and Italian olive vari­eties have been planted, with Koroneiki demon­strat­ing some of the best results to date.

According to FAZ, there is evi­dence of olive cul­ti­va­tion dat­ing back more than 1,000 years in Herzegovina, but the crop was lost over time, dwin­dling to 18 hectares by 2010. Since then, farm­ers have planted more than 500 hectares of groves and FAZ opened a new lab­o­ra­tory to con­duct physico-chem­i­cal tests.

Along with ris­ing pro­duc­tion, which reached a record high of 280,000 liters in the 2022/23 crop year, Herzegovinian pro­duc­ers have also enhanced the qual­ity of their pro­duc­tion, win­ning a record 11 awards at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

“[These awards are] a great incen­tive for future olive cul­ti­va­tion, and it will be a great respon­si­bil­ity to main­tain this qual­ity,” said Miljan Porfirije-Grgic of Manastir Tvrdoš, which earned a Gold Award.

• Sarajevo Times