Orthodox Monastery Earns Three Gold Awards at NYIOOC for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary

Manastir Tvrdoš, a Serbian Orthodox monastery in south­ern Herzegovina, won three Gold Awards at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, show­cas­ing the region’s grow­ing suc­cess in pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity olive oils. The monastery’s com­mit­ment to olive pro­duc­tion, includ­ing hand-har­vest­ing and press­ing olives promptly, has led to the cre­ation of award-win­ning oils and reflects the wider expan­sion of olive farm­ing in Herzegovina, sup­ported by orga­ni­za­tions such as the Herzegovinian Association of Olive Growers and Millers.

A Serbian Orthodox monastery in south­ern Herzegovina has won three Gold Awards at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, adding to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s grow­ing record at the annual qual­ity con­test.

The awards went to oils pro­duced by Manastir Tvrdoš, a 15^th-cen­tury monastery near Trebinje that has long been known for wine pro­duc­tion and its Roman-era cel­lars, a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion for vis­i­tors inter­ested in the region’s food and her­itage.

“Last year we won one gold, and this year three,” said Miljan Grgić Porfirije, a hieromonk at the monastery. ​“This is another con­fir­ma­tion of our com­mit­ment to the olive and to pro­duc­ing extra vir­gin olive oils.”

In recent years, the monastery’s groves around the site have drawn grow­ing atten­tion, reflect­ing the wider expan­sion of olive farm­ing in Herzegovina.

Porfirije said the monastery cur­rently has 1,700 trees, includ­ing local Herzegovinian cul­ti­vars and Greek and Italian vari­eties.

One of the Gold Awards went to Manastir Tvrdoš Chalkidiki, a mono­va­ri­etal oil made from the Greek Chalkidiki cul­ti­var. Porfirije said the olives were hand-har­vested and pressed promptly, pro­duc­ing a green oil with pro­nounced fruiti­ness and a high polyphe­nol con­tent.

A sec­ond Gold Award went to Monastic blend, also pro­duced from hand-picked olives and milled accord­ing to best prac­tices to pre­serve fresh­ness and bal­ance.

The third Gold Award was earned by Manastir Tvrdoš Kalamata, pro­duced from the well-known Greek table olive vari­ety. Porfirije said the orchard’s soils and cli­mate appear well suited to the cul­ti­var, and that the result­ing oil con­tains more than 400 mil­ligrams of polyphe­nols per liter, a level often asso­ci­ated with height­ened oxida­tive sta­bil­ity and increased inter­est from health-con­scious con­sumers.

Porfirije added that the monastery is expand­ing its olive oper­a­tion and build­ing a new mill. Once com­pleted, it will also offer milling ser­vices to other grow­ers in the Trebinje munic­i­pal­ity, where pro­duc­ers cul­ti­vate about 8,000 olive trees.

Across Herzegovina, the sec­tor has accel­er­ated in recent sea­sons, sup­ported by insti­tu­tional pro­grams and pro­ducer-led coop­er­a­tion. Marko Ivanković, direc­tor of the Agromediterranean Institute in Mostar, said 15,000 new trees were planted last sea­son on about 150 hectares.

He pointed to the role of the Herzegovinian Association of Olive Growers and Millers (HUUM), founded five years ago, in orga­niz­ing pro­duc­ers and advanc­ing qual­ity and ori­gin ini­tia­tives.

With sup­port from the EU4Agri project, HUUM helped secure Protected Designation of Origin sta­tus for Herzegovina’s extra vir­gin olive oil at the national level, Ivanković said. He added that pro­duc­ers expect the PDO process to progress to the European Union level.

HUUM, which includes grow­ers from dif­fer­ent faiths and eth­nic back­grounds, also became the owner of a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) in 2024, branded Zlatne kapi Hercegovine, to strengthen mar­ket recog­ni­tion for regional oils.

Ivanković said Bosnia and Herzegovina has also joined the International Olive Council (IOC), based in Madrid, and that a con­cept for ​“olive oil routes” in Herzegovina has been pre­pared and for­warded to inter­ested insti­tu­tions as part of a broader push to develop tourism linked to olive cul­ture.

Porfirije said the NYIOOC results reflect col­lec­tive progress. ​“This is our shared suc­cess,” he said, not­ing that he also serves as HUUM’s vice pres­i­dent.

Herzegovinian pro­duc­ers won 11 awards at last year’s NYIOOC and are hop­ing to sur­pass that total as more results are announced this sea­son.