Croatia’s Zadar County Celebrates NYIOOC Success in Official Ceremony

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Part of our con­tin­u­ing spe­cial cov­er­age of the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Zadar county pre­fect Božidar Longin held a cer­e­mony in the homony­mous cap­i­tal city to con­grat­u­late local wine, cheese and extra vir­gin olive oil pro­duc­ers for their out­stand­ing results in a series of com­pe­ti­tions.

Encompassing north­ern Dalmatia and south­east­ern Lika, Zadar county is one of seven coastal coun­ties in Croatia branded as an offi­cial wine tourism des­ti­na­tion.

“We have qual­ity,” Longin said. ​“We also have respectable quan­ti­ties of top-qual­ity oils, wine and cheese, and now we should work on a stronger appeal to tourists.”

Wine pro­duc­ers from Zadar earned 12 awards at the recent Decanter World Wine Awards in London, and local cheese pro­duc­ers cel­e­brated their suc­cess in three inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions.

Meanwhile, 10 olive oil pro­duc­ers earned 12 awards at the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion.

Overall, pro­duc­ers from Croatia earned 96 awards from 112 entries in the com­pe­ti­tion, the third-high­est total behind Italy and Spain. However, Croatia’s 86 per­cent suc­cess rate was the high­est of any coun­try that sub­mit­ted more than three entries.

“In terms of per­cent­age of suc­cess and qual­ity, we are the best in the world,” said Ivica Vlatković, who won two Silver Awards at the com­pe­ti­tion and is the pres­i­dent of the Zadar County Olive Growers Association.

According to Vlatković, as many as 3,500 farm­ers grow olives on 2,580 hectares in the county. In addi­tion, there are 38 mills, which process about 800,000 liters of oil. Zadar also hosts two pan­els with 43 cer­ti­fied olive oil eval­u­a­tors.

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

He believes Zadar and the rest of Dalmatia can fol­low the orga­ni­za­tional play­book set by pro­duc­ers in the north­west­ern Istria penin­sula to sys­tem­at­i­cally sign up farm­ers and millers to com­pete in the com­pe­ti­tion and assist them in test­ing their oils and financ­ing their entries.

Longin added that the awards result from the hard work and coop­er­a­tion among farm­ers, local author­i­ties and other insti­tu­tions.

“The awards from the com­pe­ti­tion are the best proof of how seri­ously and respon­si­bly they have approached breed­ing and pro­duc­tion, com­bin­ing tra­di­tion and new knowl­edge,” he said. ​“With such a com­bi­na­tion, suc­cess can­not be absent.”

According to Longin, agri­tourism is an excel­lent way to develop Zadar County’s rural areas sus­tain­ably. He added the county is sup­port­ing an increas­ing num­ber of new agri­tourism oper­a­tions.

“Branding Zadar County as a gas­tro­nomic des­ti­na­tion is one of our goals, and it is not pos­si­ble with­out the pro­duc­ers of top extra vir­gin olive oils, wines and cheeses,” Longin said.

On behalf of the win­ners, Vlatković thanked the county for its efforts to sup­port agri­cul­tural pro­duc­ers.