Producers Behind Ronkaldo Celebrate First Win for Slovenia at 2023 NYIOOC

Ekološka Kmetija Ronkaldo became the first pro­ducer from Slovenia to be awarded at the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Three Slovenian pro­duc­ers have been awarded at the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion from eight entries so far. Winners will con­tinue to be announced through April.

“This is the biggest recog­ni­tion so far,” Martin Adamič told Olive Oil Times. ​“This is our first time at the world’s most pres­ti­gious qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion, and we’ve imme­di­ately won the Gold Award.”

Adamič took over the man­age­ment of the organic olive groves in Izola, Slovenian Istria, from his father, Miran Adamič.

The elder Adamiči started grow­ing olives in 1984. Today, the grove cov­ers 2.9 hectares, com­pris­ing 800 olive trees in Baredi.

Adamič mainly grows the autochtho­nous Istrian bjel­ica vari­ety, along with some Maurino, Leccino, Pendolino, Itrana, Buga, Leccio del Corno vari­eties for oil pro­duc­tion and a few table olive vari­eties.

“Our Ronkaldo oil is Protected Designation of Origin-cer­ti­fied, and it is pro­duced in a sus­tain­able, envi­ron­men­tally friendly and organic way,” Adamič said.

Despite drought and extreme tem­per­a­tures in July and August, Adamič said the 2022/23 crop year was still suc­cess­ful in terms of pro­duc­tion quan­tity and qual­ity.

“Abundant rain dur­ing September helped the olive trees to recover,” Adamič said. ​“There were no dis­eases or pests, so we har­vested beau­ti­ful, flaw­less olive fruits.”

Adamič attrib­uted his suc­cess at the NYIOOC to an early har­vest and imme­di­ate milling of the olives after they were picked.

“We picked our Istrian bjel­ica olives in mid-October and processed them the same day at the Santomas oil mill from Šmarje near Koper,” he said. ​“We stored the oil prop­erly, trans­ferred it into appro­pri­ate glass bot­tles on time, and that’s our secret.”

Before sub­mit­ting their extra vir­gin olive oil to the NYIOOC, Adamič had earned awards in Slovenia and Europe. However, he said win­ning in New York feels dif­fer­ent.

“And since the Ronkaldo estate is also vis­ited by buy­ers from the United States, the award from New York will be an addi­tional asset for the suc­cess­ful sale of our prod­ucts,” Adamič said.