Croatia’s success at NYIOOC 2023 is particularly impressive. Especially because this time it’s not just the Istrians that are making headlines – this year’s gold medalists are from Dalmatia!
“Croatian Olive Growers Shatter Records, Achieving Gold at NYIOOC 2023!” reports have just come in and the excitement is palpable. The winners, Tomislav Duvnjak and Eva Marija Čurin, are being hailed as heroes in the olive oil industry. This marks a historic achievement for Croatia, as they beat out strong competitors such as Italy and Spain to become one of the top three producers of olive oil in the world.
Autochtonous Dalmatian olive variety takes Gold
Duvnjak, who heads the Olive Oil Center of St. Ivan in Vodice, is ecstatic that his autochthonous variety of oil, Oblica, has won gold this year, after taking home the silver medal last year. He is known as the visionary who rallied olive growers in Croatia’s largest olive-growing region, Dalmatia, to send their oils to the prestigious NYIOOC competition. And boy, did they deliver!
“We are third in the world. It is the biggest success so far”, commented Duvnjak.
Last year, Croatian olive growers, mostly from Dalmatia and Istria, won a staggering 96 awards, including 69 gold and 27 silver medals, beating out countries like the United States, Greece, Turkey, and Portugal. This year, out of 1,100 samples from the northern hemisphere evaluated at NYIOOC, 126 oils came from Croatia, of which 61 were from Dalmatia.
Oblica and Levantinka Taking The Throne
The winning oils from Duvnjak’s St. Ivan Oblica and Čurin’s Eva Marija Levantinka brands have been carefully handpicked and processed within 24 hours using a cold extraction system. These top-quality oils are fruity and delicious, which is why they were crowned the winners.
The competition isn’t over yet, as the evaluation of oils from the countries of the northern hemisphere will continue until the end of May, followed by the evaluation of oils from the countries of the southern hemisphere throughout the summer. But the winners are already making history, and their names will go down in the books.
The organisers point out that all winning brands will be featured in the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils and in special sections of the specialised Olive Oil Times magazine
