Organic olive oil in Croatia

Abstract

There are four olive oils with a PDO designation of origin in Croatia: Krk olive oil, Cres olive oil, solta olive oil and Korčula olive oil. Key technical steps in the PDO olive oil production are olive production, harvesting, olive processing and olive oil storage. PDO olive oil value chain in Croatia is very short, because most of the olive producers are at the same time retailers. Upstream level consists of three stakeholders: Producers of olive seedlings, producers of other inputs and olive growers. Processing level is composed of olive oil refineries. Downstream level is related to direct sale of PDO olive oil through tourism. Olive growers, as upstream level stakeholder, are at the same time selling directly PDO olive oil. There are only 17 producers of PDO olive oil who produced about 12,500 kg of PDO olive oil in 2016. The importance of labelling products with geographical indications is not yet sufficiently recognized amongst producers and consumers in Croatia. Following on from the sustainability assessment of PDO olive oil in Croatia reported here PDO olive oil appears characterized by higher environmental and social sustainability compared to the reference oil. The existing higher performance in terms of price premium may be able to be confirmed also on export markets, once production of PDO olive oil will have scaled to a proper commercial scale.