Montenegrin Producers Push to Boost Consumption as Ancient Groves Face Threats

Summary

Montenegro’s ancient olive trees, some over 2,000 years old, are a tes­ta­ment to the coun­try’s rich olive-grow­ing tra­di­tion. Despite efforts to pro­mote olive oil con­sump­tion, Montenegro’s rate remains low, prompt­ing ini­tia­tives like the E‑Olive project to edu­cate con­sumers and poten­tially expand olive cul­ti­va­tion along the coast. Concerns about new laws allow­ing con­struc­tion in olive groves threaten the future of this ancient tra­di­tion, but efforts con­tinue to pro­tect and pro­mote Montenegro’s olive her­itage.

Across Montenegro’s south­ern coast, olive trees more than two mil­len­nia old still anchor the land­scape. Their twisted trunks rise from ter­raced hill­sides that slope toward the Adriatic, mark­ing one of the Mediterranean’s old­est con­tin­u­ous olive-grow­ing tra­di­tions.

The most famous among them is the Stara Maslina of Mirovica in Bar, esti­mated at around 2,250 years old and still pro­duc­ing fruit.

“It is one of the three old­est olives on the Mediterranean, and it still gives excep­tional oil,” said Ćazim Alković, pres­i­dent of the Bar Olive Growers’ Association. ​“Its fruit tells sto­ries longer than any­thing writ­ten in our archives.”

In the nearby com­mu­nity of Mrkojevići, another ancient tree stands: Begovica, also believed to be more than 2,000 years old. It remains a source of pride for the fam­ily of long­time grower Vebija Abazović.

These trees are reminders of a deep-rooted her­itage and the con­ti­nu­ity of Montenegrin masli­narstvo, a tra­di­tion passed down for cen­turies.

Documenting the Age of Montenegro’s Oldest Trees

About a decade ago, the Bar Olive Growers’ Association part­nered with UNIDO on a project to deter­mine the age of his­toric trees in Bar and Ulcinj. Fifty olive trees were exam­ined, pro­vid­ing rare sci­en­tific data on the region’s ancient groves.

“Those 50 trees rep­re­sent only a frac­tion of what exists here,” Alković said. ​“Every vil­lage has dozens of old or very old olives that still bear fruit just as they did cen­turies ago.”

Half a Liter per Person: One of Europe’s Lowest Consumption Rates

Despite this her­itage, an ideal cli­mate and respected local vari­eties, olive oil con­sump­tion in Montenegro remains among the low­est in Europe at roughly 0.5 liters per per­son annu­ally.

By com­par­i­son, EU con­sump­tion aver­ages around 8 liters per capita. Italians con­sume about 11 liters per per­son each year, Spaniards 10.5, and Greeks around 20. In San Marino, a microstate of 61 square kilo­me­ters, annual con­sump­tion reaches an aston­ish­ing 24 liters.

“We have tried many times to encour­age peo­ple — espe­cially in the moun­tain­ous north — to use more olive oil, but with lim­ited suc­cess,” said Alković.

More than a decade ago, he and agri­cul­tural expert Ilija Morić cre­ated the first ver­sion of a con­sumer guide to olive oil as part of a Montenegro Business Alliance project. The book­let offered clear expla­na­tions of qual­ity grades, tast­ing tech­niques and proper stor­age, and became pop­u­lar among grow­ers and con­sumers.

A revised and expanded edi­tion fol­lowed, with sup­port from the Municipality of Bar, includ­ing an English-lan­guage ver­sion that quickly attracted tourists drawn to the ancient groves.

IOC Supports Digital Initiative to Promote Olive Oil

Alković, whose fam­ily has grown olives for more than 300 years, also rep­re­sents Montenegro at the International Olive Council (IOC). The orga­ni­za­tion recently launched a global call for ini­tia­tives to encour­age olive oil con­sump­tion.

Among the appli­ca­tions was a pro­posal from the Bar grow­ers: E‑Olive — Innovative IT Solutions for Promoting Olive Oil Consumption.

The project was rec­og­nized in Madrid for its blend of local tra­di­tion and mod­ern tech­nol­ogy — a com­bi­na­tion the IOC said few Mediterranean regions have pur­sued so effec­tively.

E‑Olive: QR-Based Learning and Video Guides

The new dig­i­tal guide intro­duces QR codes that link read­ers to short edu­ca­tional videos. Each sec­tion of the guide will fea­ture its own code, enabling con­sumers to scan with a smart­phone and imme­di­ately watch expert expla­na­tions.

The videos will cover key top­ics such as the char­ac­ter­is­tics of extra vir­gin olive oil, how to per­form a basic tast­ing, what makes an oil fruity, bit­ter or pun­gent, and how pro­fes­sional tast­ing glasses are used. One seg­ment focuses on Žutica, the indige­nous Montenegrin vari­ety prized for its purity and fla­vor.

Alković believes the mul­ti­me­dia for­mat will par­tic­u­larly appeal to younger audi­ences, tourists, and hos­pi­tal­ity pro­fes­sion­als who pre­fer video over text.

The asso­ci­a­tion expects broader use of the dig­i­tal guide to trans­late into higher con­sump­tion, both among new and exist­ing con­sumers, increas­ing their annual intake.

Growers also believe the ini­tia­tive could encour­age an expan­sion of olive cul­ti­va­tion along Montenegro’s 90-kilo­me­ter coast­line from Boka Kotorska to Ulcinj. They esti­mate the region has about 500,000 trees, though no offi­cial cen­sus has yet been con­ducted.

“That num­ber could dou­ble,” Alković said. ​“But it could also shrink dra­mat­i­cally if cur­rent threats are not stopped.”

New Amendments Open Groves to Construction

In a con­tro­ver­sial move, two local NGOs from Bar — Antivari and Maslinijada — recently pro­posed amend­ments to Montenegro’s Law on Olive Growing and Olive Oil that would allow res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial con­struc­tion inside tra­di­tional maslin­ici.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management opposed the amend­ments, as did the Bar Olive Growers’ Association.

“We warned of cat­a­strophic con­se­quences: the uproot­ing of ancient trees, frag­men­ta­tion of agri­cul­tural land, the loss of the unique land­scape that defines Bar, and long-term dam­age to the envi­ron­ment that ensures the purity and qual­ity of our oil,” said Alković.

Growers argue that only a hand­ful of pri­vate inter­ests would ben­e­fit, envi­sion­ing lucra­tive land sales to for­eign buy­ers who would replace trees with apart­ments and pools.

Despite oppo­si­tion from grow­ers and agri­cul­tural author­i­ties, the Montenegrin Parliament adopted the amended law. Producers say polit­i­cal pres­sures rather than expert rec­om­men­da­tions drove the changes.

“The new pro­vi­sions allow the removal or relo­ca­tion of old olive trees and the con­struc­tion of build­ings in their place,” Alković said. ​“Our coast­line is already heav­ily urban­ized. Olive groves were one of the last untouched land­scapes. If these norms remain, we risk irre­versible dam­age.”

The asso­ci­a­tion hopes Parliament will revisit the leg­is­la­tion and restore pro­tec­tions that align with Mediterranean prac­tice. In many coun­tries — includ­ing neigh­bor­ing Croatia — con­struc­tion on agri­cul­tural land, par­tic­u­larly within olive groves, is strictly pro­hib­ited.

Defending the Future of Montenegrin Olive Growing

Despite the set­back, the Bar grow­ers say they will con­tinue pro­mot­ing olive oil edu­ca­tion, qual­ity and health ben­e­fits through the E‑Olive project.

Workshops are planned across the coun­try, not only along the coast but also in cen­tral and north­ern Montenegro, where con­sump­tion is low­est.

The expanded guide aims to help con­sumers under­stand how to taste olive oil, rec­og­nize fresh­ness, store it cor­rectly and incor­po­rate it into daily meals.

Particular empha­sis will be placed on Montenegrin extra vir­gin olive oil, mainly pro­duced from the indige­nous Žutica vari­ety grown in clean, unpol­luted envi­ron­ments — con­di­tions pro­duc­ers say con­tribute to its dis­tinc­tive char­ac­ter.

“In Bar, the olive tree is more than a plant,” Alković said. ​“It is part of our iden­tity and our way of life. Through the E‑Olive project, it becomes a bridge between tra­di­tion and mod­ern edu­ca­tion.”

The dig­i­tal guide will be avail­able to other orga­ni­za­tions and can be trans­lated into Albanian, Russian, German or any lan­guage needed. In this way, the sto­ries of Montenegro’s mil­len­nia-old trees may reach far beyond the Adriatic.

“If this project encour­ages even a few more peo­ple to embrace olive oil in their daily diet,” Alković said, ​“it will be a vic­tory for both con­sumers and a tra­di­tion that has sur­vived for thou­sands of years.”