Rare Variety Unites Bosnia and Herzegovina in Olive Grove of Hope

Summary

Olive farm­ing in Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, has grown sig­nif­i­cantly, with new plan­ta­tions like the Olive Grove of Hope at the Convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King. This project brought together peo­ple of dif­fer­ent faiths to plant rare Leucocarpa olive trees, sym­bol­iz­ing hope and unity in a coun­try still recov­er­ing from the Bosnian War.

Olive farm­ing in Herzegovina, the south­ern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina is devel­op­ing by leaps and bounds. 

About ten years ago, there were only 80 olive trees, and today, 116,000 olive trees are cul­ti­vated on 520 hectares. 

New plan­ta­tions con­tinue to be estab­lished, includ­ing an unusual one at the Convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Christ the King in Bijelo Polje, Potoci, north of Mostar, Herzegovina’s largest city.

“This is the Olive Grove of Hope,” said nun Dajana Dujmović, direc­tor of the com­pany Paxa Dola (trans­lated as Valley of Peace), which man­ages the monastery’s olive groves.

Along with the 3,500 drip-irri­gated Oblica, Istrian bjel­ica, Pendolino, Cipressino and Ascolana ten­erra trees planted 13 years ago on about 14 hectares, the monastery also hosts the rare Leucocarpa vari­ety, col­lo­qui­ally called the ​“white olive.”

“Its fruits look like pearls, and its oil has been used for the ordi­na­tion of priests since ancient times,” Dujmović said. ​“The sil­very crown and white fruits have become a sign of purity, renewal and the inde­struc­tibil­ity of good.”

The idea of​build­ing the Olive Grove of Hope from this vari­ety came spon­ta­neously. During a study trip to Italy, orga­nized by the Herzegovina Association of Olive Growers and Oil Producers (HUUM), a spon­ta­neous con­ver­sa­tion arose about the rar­ity of white olive seedlings, also known as Leucolea. 

HUUM, which unites mem­bers of three eth­nic groups — Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks — and three reli­gions — Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Islam — facil­i­tated the exchange among par­tic­i­pants, who noted how dif­fi­cult it is to obtain these seedlings.

This real­iza­tion sparked an unex­pected reac­tion – every­one expressed a desire to acquire at least one sapling. 

However, this story was even more spe­cial because the trip par­tic­i­pants were peo­ple of three dif­fer­ent faiths who joined the project with­out hes­i­ta­tion, con­nect­ing through a com­mon desire to con­tribute to cre­at­ing some­thing valu­able and last­ing.

Religion played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the bloody Bosnian War, which saw Muslim-major­ity Bosniaks and Catholic-major­ity Bosnian Croats fight Orthodox Bosnian Serbs to main­tain the inde­pen­dence of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1995. 

The con­flict included the Srebrenica geno­cide, where Bosnian Serb forces sys­tem­at­i­cally mur­dered 8,000 Bosniak men and boys and forced 20,000 oth­ers to leave their homes.

The mem­ory of the event has been seared into the national con­scious­ness, and ten­sion between the var­i­ous eth­nic and reli­gious groups has never fully abated.

To pro­mote national unity, the HUUM group acquired 33 Leucolea saplings, cor­re­spond­ing to the age of Jesus Christ at the cru­ci­fix­ion. The search for the first 15 trees ended suc­cess­fully on the trip to Italy. But the story did not stop there.

The well-known agron­o­mist and olive grower Božo Mustapić from Neum took on the chal­lenge of find­ing donors for the remain­ing 18 trees.

“No mat­ter how many more trees need to be pur­chased, I will find peo­ple who want it,” Mustapić said. 

Indeed, more peo­ple got involved in the pur­chase, and many shared the costs so that they could par­tic­i­pate. 

“But it was­n’t just about money here – the most impor­tant thing was togeth­er­ness, meet­ing and con­nect­ing through a noble cause,” Dujmović said.

From the begin­ning, he said it was clear that this project went beyond plant­ing the olive trees. Everyone who decided to par­tic­i­pate took on the oblig­a­tion to finance the pur­chase of the white olive trees and plant them.

The plant­ing took place on February 21^st, and the response exceeded expec­ta­tions. 

In addi­tion to nuns, priests, and olive grow­ers from Herzegovina, diplo­mats, for­eign ambas­sadors, and politi­cians par­tic­i­pated in the unusual event, includ­ing the country’s pres­i­dent and agri­cul­ture min­is­ter, who planted a tree.

“The olive tree is not only an agri­cul­tural crop but a sym­bol of hope and endurance. Planting an olive tree means invest­ing in the future,” said Minister of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry Kemal Hrnjić. ​“This olive grove should be a wit­ness to the hope that we can build a bet­ter future.” 

“I hope this project will inspire oth­ers to ded­i­cate them­selves to agri­cul­ture and olive grow­ing,” President Lidija Bradara added.

Miljan Grgić-Porfirije, vice pres­i­dent of HUUM and hieromonk (a title in the Orthodox Church sim­i­lar to a monk and priest) at the Tvrdoš Monastery near Trebinje, a town about 30 kilo­me­ters north of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, also planted his olive tree. 

The monastery is known for its top-qual­ity wines and award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oil. ​“This year, for the first time, we will also par­tic­i­pate in the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition,” Grgić-Porfirije said. 

He said Tvrdoš is one of the most vis­ited monas­ter­ies in the Serbian Orthodox Church, with 350,000 vis­i­tors of dif­fer­ent reli­gions and nation­al­i­ties pass­ing through it annu­ally. ​“It brings peo­ple from all over the world together through spir­i­tu­al­ity and hos­pi­tal­ity,” he said.

Ramiz Zajmović, a HUUM board mem­ber and direc­tor of the organic agri­cul­ture firm AgorHerc, also planted a Leucocarpa seedling. 

The com­pany cul­ti­vated 15,000 olive trees, wild roses, figs and laven­der on 140 hectares on a hill above the town of Gabela. 

“Everything is organic and holis­tic, for which we are the only one in Bosnia and Herzegovina to have the Demeter cer­tifi­cate,” said Zajmović, a Muslim.

Under the slo­gan ​“Unity in Diversity,” all par­tic­i­pants planted 33 Leucocarpa seedlings. Friar Svetozar Kraljević blessed the newly cre­ated olive grove and all those gath­ered. 

“It was an event much more impor­tant than a sim­ple plant­ing,” Dujmović said. ​“An oppor­tu­nity to reflect on peace, con­nec­tion and love, every­thing that unites us and makes us equal.”

She is con­vinced that the Olive Grove of Hope will become a place of meet­ing, prayer, reflec­tion and hope, where every­one can find their ​“sta­tion” and ​“olive tree of hope.”

“This olive grove of ours is not just an ordi­nary eco­nomic ven­ture but a sym­bol of God’s pres­ence and love,” Dujmović said. 

Numerous vis­i­tors also feel this way. The sis­ters orga­nize an olive har­vest day with vol­un­teers and vis­i­tors every year.

The olives are then milled into the convent’s ded­i­cated olive oil brand, Paxa Monastery. The label, which is rec­og­niz­able, depicts a sil­hou­ette of a nun and an olive tree.

The label’s white color sym­bol­izes purity and peace, while the gold col­ors reflect the divine, cre­at­ing har­mony that reflects togeth­er­ness and col­lec­tive con­nec­tion. 

“The sign of Alpha and Omega (the begin­ning and the end) directs our hearts towards the real­ity of where we came from and where we are return­ing,” Dujmović said.

The pre­vi­ous olive har­vest was approx­i­mately 33,000 met­ric tons, about 50 per­cent below ini­tial expec­ta­tions due to sig­nif­i­cant hail dam­age in May.

The aver­age oil yield was also slightly lower than in pre­vi­ous years, amount­ing to about 10 per­cent, below the typ­i­cal 12 to 15 per­cent range.

Since this is the north­ern­most olive grove, above which there is typ­i­cally snow on the Velež hill through­out the win­ter and early spring, the veg­e­ta­tion and fruit ripen­ing are late com­pared to the country’s south­ern regions. This dif­fer­ence was even more pro­nounced last sea­son.

However, as usual, the nuns car­ried out the har­vest from October 10^th to 20^th and yielded high-qual­ity olive oil with more than 250 mil­ligrams of polyphe­nols per liter. This means the oil meets E.U. Regulation 432/2012 on med­i­c­i­nal claims for olive oils.

Given its estab­lished olive oil pro­duc­tion and ris­ing price charges by the usual miller, the con­vent plans to pur­chase an olive mill later this year or in 2026 and plant more olive trees.

Dujmović added that they will also open a tast­ing room and shop later in the year in one of the old con­vent build­ings, ren­o­vated in 2024.

Plans also include open­ing a museum, gallery and guest accom­mo­da­tion in the com­plex, fur­ther devel­op­ing the convent’s oleo­tourism oper­a­tions and pro­mot­ing the local olive-grow­ing tra­di­tion.

However, national unity in a coun­try still recov­er­ing from the Bosnian War remains the pri­mary goal of the Olive Grove of Hope, bring­ing together Christians and Muslims ​“bet­ter than the Dayton Accords,” the 1995 agree­ment that ended the con­flict.