Latest Awards Confirm the Rising Quality of Croatian Extra Virgin Olive Oils

Croatian olive grow­ers began cel­e­brat­ing their suc­cess after the con­clu­sion of the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity con­test.

“We are third, and we nar­rowly missed out on sec­ond place,” pro­ducer Tomislav Duvnjak said of Croatia’s stand­ing among the most awarded coun­tries.

Along with his Vodice extra vir­gin olive oil, Duvnjak helped coor­di­nate the sub­mis­sion of many oils from Dalmatia, Croatia’s largest olive-grow­ing region.

Overall, 1,100 sam­ples were sub­mit­ted to the 2023 NYIOOC from 28 coun­tries. Croatian olive grow­ers, mainly from Dalmatia and Istria, excelled with 105 awards (94 Gold and 11 Silver) from 128 entries, plac­ing the coun­try in third place — like their national asso­ci­a­tion foot­ball team, which fin­ished third at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Croatian pro­duc­ers also fin­ished in third place in the 2022 NYIOOC with 96 awards and fourth place in the 2021 edi­tion with 87 awards.

“Spain over­took us by just one more award. They won 106 medals, and we won 105,” Duvnjak said. ​“The Spanish com­peted with 135 sam­ples, and we with 128.”

“Our suc­cess rate is bet­ter. Spain had 79 per­cent, and Croatia had 82 per­cent,” he added. ​“In this respect, we sur­passed even Italy, which won 174 awards from 224 sam­ples — 75 per­cent.”

In the final rank­ing, Greece fin­ished in fourth with 90 awards and the United States in fifth with 80, fol­lowed by Turkey (74), Portugal (35), Tunisia (27), France (11) and other olive-grow­ing coun­tries with sig­nif­i­cantly higher pro­duc­tion vol­umes than Croatia.

Duvnjak and other pro­duc­ers said it is encour­ag­ing that Croatian olive grow­ers demon­strated increased qual­ity.

Since 2015, when only nine entries were sub­mit­ted, Croatia has become one of the strongest per­form­ers in terms of the num­ber of awards and suc­cess rate at the NYIOOC. However, the trend took off in 2021 when Duvnjak first orga­nized the effort for Dalmatian pro­duc­ers to sub­mit their oils.

“In terms of per­for­mance and qual­ity, Croatian olive oils are the best in the world,” said Ivica Vlatković, an award-win­ning pro­ducer and pres­i­dent of the Association of Olive Growers of Zadar County. ​“We’re even bet­ter than the two olive-grow­ing super­pow­ers of Italy and Spain.”

“These awards are recog­ni­tion for great effort and work,” added Domagoj Živković, owner of OPG Laurenta, who earned a Gold Award for a medium-inten­sity Oblica. ​“But let them also be an oblig­a­tion to con­tinue even bet­ter because it is still dif­fi­cult to stay on top.”

We should con­tinue to pro­duce even bet­ter qual­ity oils and par­tic­i­pate with more sam­ples, and here we are at the top of the world,” he added.

Vlatković said Croatia could be proud of its olive grow­ers because they once again lifted it to the world stage. ​“Exactly where it belongs because great suc­cesses are achieved where peo­ple live their dreams. Enthusiasts are dri­ven by loss, love for their land and the sacred olive tree,” he said.

Now, pro­duc­ers in Croatia say it is time for olive grow­ers to be rec­og­nized for their con­tri­bu­tion to the coun­try’s agri­cul­tural sec­tor and global pro­file by gov­ern­ment offi­cials and pro­grams.