Croatian County Recognizes the Role of Award-Winning Producers in Promoting Tourism

At a ded­i­cated recep­tion, Zadar county offi­cials, includ­ing Prefect Božidar Longin, con­grat­u­lated award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oil, cheese and wine pro­duc­ers.

Situated on the coast in south­ern Croatia, Zadar County is lead­ing the country’s efforts to rebrand itself as a lead­ing food and wine tourism des­ti­na­tion.

“We have qual­ity,” Longin said. ​“We also have a respectable quan­tity of top-qual­ity olive oils, wine and cheese, and now we should work on a stronger intro­duc­tion to the tourist offer.”

In the great hall of the ancient city of Zadar, the cap­i­tal of the epony­mous county, local olive grow­ers were cel­e­brated for earn­ing 12 awards at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Croatian farm­ers and millers earned 80 awards from 97 entries at the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion, the fourth most of any coun­try.

The cer­e­mony also hon­ored 13 wine pro­duc­ers awarded at the pres­ti­gious Decanter World Wine Awards in London, and sev­eral cheese pro­duc­ers who claimed vic­tory at the Greate Taste Awards and World Cheese Awards.

According to Ivica Vlatković, an award-win­ning olive oil pro­ducer and pres­i­dent of the Zadar County Olive Growers’ Association, olives are grown on 2,580 hectares, with as many as 3,501 farms engaged in olive cul­ti­va­tion.

Over 40 olive oil mills process around 800,000 liters of olive oil, and two pan­els with 43 autho­rized olive oil asses­sors oper­ate in the region.

“It is espe­cially grat­i­fy­ing that year after year, young and ambi­tious olive grow­ers arrive, whose pri­mary goal is the high qual­ity of the olive oil pro­duced,” Vlatković said. ​“The inter­est in this inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tion grows every year.”

Vlatković has been part of a con­certed effort to pro­mote high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil pro­duc­tion in the south­ern Croatian region of Dalmatia by increas­ing the knowl­edge of local olive grow­ers and millers.

He attrib­utes Croatian pro­duc­ers’ ris­ing suc­cess at the NYIOOC to improve­ments in olive grow­ing, har­vest­ing and milling tech­niques.

Previously, Vlatković said that most pro­duc­ers waited to har­vest until later in the sea­son to take advan­tage of higher olive oil yields, believ­ing that sac­ri­fic­ing qual­ity for quan­tity was the most eco­nom­i­cal way of olive farm­ing.

This trend has reversed, and farm­ers con­tinue to har­vest as early as pos­si­ble. Vlatković attrib­uted the rever­sal to the new­found belief that focus­ing on qual­ity pays more than quan­tity, along with the impacts of cli­mate change, which he believes is caus­ing the olives to ripen ear­lier.

While qual­ity is ris­ing in Zadar, Vlatković warned that olive oil pro­duc­ers face sim­i­lar chal­lenges.

It is increas­ingly chal­leng­ing to con­tract enough work­ers to com­plete the har­vest, even as some grow­ers shift from hand har­vests to semi-mechan­i­cal har­vests.

Vlatković added that increas­ingly rainy weather in October cre­ates logis­ti­cal chal­lenges for plan­ning an early har­vest and cre­ates the con­di­tions for olive fruit fly infes­ta­tions.

Due to these evolv­ing chal­lenges, Vlatković believes edu­cat­ing olive grow­ers is the only way for­ward. He views NYIOOC awards as the best indi­ca­tor that qual­ity lev­els are main­tained through the chal­lenges.

“The goal is to pro­duce, brand and sell high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oils at appro­pri­ate prices so that not only olive grow­ers but also con­sumers ben­e­fit,” he said.

For his part, Vlatković earned a pair of Gold Awards for his Fortica brand at the 2024 NYIOOC. He has also earned 15 awards at the com­pe­ti­tion since 2017.

Along with Vlatković, the recep­tion was attended by the coun­ty’s other NYIOOC win­ners, includ­ing Ante Vulin, OPG Nives Morović, Miodrag Deša, Tomislav Čudina and Mario Barešić, all of whom won Gold Awards.

Silver Award win­ners OPG Lalin, who earned two, Grupa Nida and PZ Maslina i Vino, also attended the event.

“The awards you earn from the com­pe­ti­tion are the best evi­dence of how seri­ously and respon­si­bly you approached cul­ti­va­tion and pro­duc­tion, com­bin­ing tra­di­tion and new knowl­edge. In such a com­bi­na­tion, suc­cess can­not be absent,” Longin told the pro­duc­ers.

He added that devel­op­ing rural areas is only pos­si­ble with an active approach and cre­at­ing new val­ues by con­nect­ing tra­di­tional activ­i­ties and cul­tures by intro­duc­ing new activ­i­ties such as rural tourism.

More than two mil­lion for­eign tourists visit Zadar County each year. Europeans, Australians, Canadians, and Americans are among the most fre­quent vis­i­tors.

“In this con­text, the pro­duc­tion of qual­ity wine, olive oil and cheese and the open­ing of an increas­ing num­ber of agri-tourism farms where guests are offered domes­tic autochtho­nous prod­ucts are activ­i­ties that the Zadar county sup­ports, and we will con­tinue to do so in the time to come,” Longin said.

“Branding Zadar county as a gas­tro­nomic des­ti­na­tion is one of our goals, and it can­not be achieved with­out pro­duc­ers of top qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oils, wines and cheeses,” he con­cluded.