`New ‘Ultra Virgin’ Label Aims to Unite Dalmatia’s Olive Oil Elite - Olive Oil Times
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New ‘Ultra Virgin’ Label Aims to Unite Dalmatia’s Olive Oil Elite

By Nedjeljko Jusup
Oct. 8, 2025 14:11 UTC
Summary Summary

Dalmatia pro­duces 85 per­cent of Croatia’s olive oil, with Dalmatian oils win­ning numer­ous awards for qual­ity. The Oleum Primum Dalmaticum Club has estab­lished a new Ultra Virgin cat­e­gory of olive oil that sur­passes extra vir­gin stan­dards and aims to pro­mote high-qual­ity Dalmatian oils to con­sumers.

Dalmatia pro­duces 85 per­cent of Croatia’s olive oil. In other words, one out of every five bot­tles of Croatian olive oil sold — includ­ing exports — comes from this region.

“The qual­ity of most Dalmatian oils is also beyond ques­tion,” said Ante Vulin, an award-win­ning pro­ducer from Pakoštane.

At the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the largest and most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity con­test, Croatian pro­duc­ers won a total of 125 awards — includ­ing 65 Gold and 21 Silver Awards for Dalmatian oils. By com­par­i­son, pro­duc­ers from Istria, another lead­ing olive-grow­ing region, earned 34 Gold and 3 Silver Awards.

“We have tra­di­tion, qual­ity, an excel­lent ter­roir, indige­nous vari­eties, and skilled pro­duc­ers — yet as a region, we are not united and we still lack a com­mon brand,” said Tomislav Duvnjak, owner of the fam­ily estate and Olive Oil Center Sveti Ivan in Vodice, north­ern Dalmatia.

Birth of the ​“Ultra Virgin” Initiative

The dis­cus­sion on how to over­come this sit­u­a­tion was pub­licly pre­sented for the first time dur­ing a panel at the recent International Symposium on Olive Oils of Croatia and the Adriatic Coast, held in Postira on the island of Brač. The sym­po­sium, orga­nized by Olive Oil Times in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Postira Tourism Board, brought together over 150 experts from 10 coun­tries.

Nedjeljko Jusup moderates the panel discussion ​“Oleum Primum Adriaticum: Defining a New Tier in Premium Olive Oil Branding” at the International Symposium on Olive Oils of Croatia and the Adriatic Coast

Ten days later, on October 1 in Novigrad near Zadar, the found­ing assem­bly of the Oleum Primum Dalmaticum Club took place. The club’s Statute and Brand Rulebook define how prod­ucts of the high­est class — Ultra Virgin — will be cer­ti­fied and pro­moted. These are pre­mium oils that sur­pass even the extra vir­gin cat­e­gory in chem­i­cal and sen­sory prop­er­ties.

A Stricter Standard of Excellence

Unlike stan­dard extra vir­gin olive oils, which may con­tain up to 0.8 grams of free fatty acids (as oleic acid) per 100 grams of oil, Ultra Virgin oils must meet far stricter stan­dards. They are obtained exclu­sively from healthy, undam­aged olives by mechan­i­cal means. Harvesting must be done man­u­ally or with small hand­held shak­ers, and pro­cess­ing must occur on the same day.

An oil may be mono­va­ri­etal, from at least 80 per­cent of a Dalmatian vari­ety, or a blend, where Dalmatian vari­eties make up more than half, accord­ing to the rule­book. Each vari­ety must be processed and labeled sep­a­rately, and clearly iden­ti­fied on the pack­ag­ing of mono­va­ri­etal oils. Authorized Croatian lab­o­ra­to­ries con­duct all chem­i­cal analy­ses.

Ultra Virgin oils con­tain no more than 0.4 grams of free fatty acids per 100 grams of oil, and their per­ox­ide value must be lower than six. The total polyphe­nol con­tent must exceed 300 mil­ligrams per kilo­gram, deter­mined by spec­tropho­to­met­ric analy­sis. For ref­er­ence, the European Commission rec­og­nizes olive oils with more than 250 mil­ligrams of polyphe­nols per kilo­gram as hav­ing ben­e­fi­cial health prop­er­ties.

Sensory char­ac­ter­is­tics are equally demand­ing: fruiti­ness, pun­gency, and bit­ter­ness must each reach at least three on the tast­ing scale, while the total median score must be at least ten — plac­ing Ultra Virgin oils among medium to intensely fruity oils.

The con­cept rec­og­nizes that many Croatian pro­duc­ers already make top-qual­ity olive oils that lack ade­quate legal cat­e­go­riza­tion. The Ultra Virgin des­ig­na­tion acknowl­edges oils that sig­nif­i­cantly exceed extra vir­gin cri­te­ria.

Certification and Recognition

Producers can qual­ify for the Ultra Virgin cat­e­gory by meet­ing all lab­o­ra­tory and sen­sory require­ments and demon­strat­ing con­sis­tent excel­lence in pro­duc­tion. Those who also achieve recog­ni­tion at major inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions, earn medals at Noćnjak — Dalmatia’s lead­ing olive oil fair — or hold cer­tifi­cates from pub­lic health insti­tu­tions may fur­ther strengthen their stand­ing.

After all con­di­tions are met and qual­ity tests are suc­cess­fully passed, the Club issues an Ultra Virgin Certificate con­firm­ing the oil’s inclu­sion in the cat­e­gory. Certified oils may dis­play the pro­tected Ultra Virgin logo on pack­ag­ing and pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als, and receive vis­i­bil­ity through the Club’s mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties and its mem­ber asso­ci­a­tions.

“Our pri­mary goal,” say the Club’s founders, ​“is to moti­vate pro­duc­ers to spe­cial­ize in the high­est pos­si­ble qual­ity of olive oil pro­duc­tion. We also want to give con­sumers an easy way to rec­og­nize and choose supe­rior oils.” For con­sumers, the Ultra Virgin label and Club logo will serve as a guar­an­tee of con­sis­tently excel­lent qual­ity. Each bot­tle will include a bar­code allow­ing ver­i­fi­ca­tion of authen­tic­ity.

Founders of the Oleum Primum Dalmaticum Club and the Ultra Virgin brand

The pri­mary ben­e­fi­cia­ries of this new clas­si­fi­ca­tion will be dis­cern­ing con­sumers and lovers of pre­mium olive oil, as well as small, ambi­tious pro­duc­ers ded­i­cated to excel­lence.

Broader Impact

Croatia is already gain­ing inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion through numer­ous awards for its olive oils. By sup­port­ing this brand­ing ini­tia­tive, the coun­try will fur­ther strengthen the global asso­ci­a­tion between Croatia and olive oil. The project is expected to bring both pro­mo­tional and eco­nomic ben­e­fits to the state and to top pro­duc­ers, explain the founders of the Oleum Primum Dalmaticum Club and cre­ators of the Ultra Virgin brand.

After adopt­ing the Club’s Statute and rules, mem­bers held their inau­gural meet­ing. Domagoj Živković — an acclaimed pro­ducer from Šibenik, recip­i­ent of the Olive Oil Times Champion of Excellence award for pro­mot­ing indige­nous vari­eties and edu­cat­ing young olive grow­ers — was unan­i­mously elected pres­i­dent. Vice President Dr. Ivica Vlatković is widely regarded as both one of Croatia’s top physi­cians and one of its best olive oil pro­duc­ers. The sec­re­tary, Zlatko Burić, is the old­est organic olive grower on the island of Šolta. With his wife Anka, he tends 150 Šoltanka and 100 Oblica trees, spend­ing every free moment in their beau­ti­ful grove over­look­ing Vis. A for­mer engi­neer and edu­ca­tor, Burić also chairs the Golden Šoltanka asso­ci­a­tion of local grow­ers.

Other founders include Krešimir Uroda, an IT pro­fes­sional turned olive farmer; Ivica Ljubenkov, pres­i­dent of the Croatian Olive Growers and Millers Association; Bernardin Peroš, pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus and for­mer uni­ver­sity dean from Split who now man­ages 220 trees; and Ranko Surjan, pres­i­dent of the Vela Luka Olive Growers Association on Korčula, who runs a tast­ing room and exports his award-win­ning Lastovka oils world­wide. The Club’s board includes Domagoj Živković, Ivica Vlatković, Zlatko Burić, Bernardin Peroš, and Krešimir Uroda.

A New Standard for Dalmatian Olive Oil

All empha­sized the impor­tance of pro­mot­ing Dalmatia’s finest olive oils across the region’s four coun­ties. ​“The fun­da­men­tal goal is to intro­duce a new cat­e­gory for olive oils that stand out for their excep­tional qual­ity and char­ac­ter, under the unof­fi­cial name ​‘Ultra Virgin,’” said Burić.

Club pres­i­dent Domagoj Živković added, ​“Through pro­mo­tion and mar­ket recog­ni­tion, we want to give con­sumers an easy choice between aver­age and high-qual­ity oils like Ultra Virgin. At the same time, we aim to encour­age Dalmatian pro­duc­ers to con­tin­u­ously improve their knowl­edge and skills in pro­duc­ing the best pos­si­ble oils — espe­cially from our native vari­eties.”

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