Today, Herzegovina has about 350 ha of olive groves with around 90,000 olive trees, and five processing plants – oil mills, and BiH olive oils are highly valued and have won numerous awards in the region and beyond, said the Federal Agro-Mediterranean Institute Mostar.
Oil mills are located in Stolac, Mostar, Capljina and two in Ljubuski, where the largest olive grove is currently located.
There are more than 200 olive growers in Herzegovina who are engaged in olive growing on areas larger than 0.3 ha up to tens of hectares, and currently the largest olive grove is located in Ljubuski, with an area of 50 ha. In addition to the above, there are also hobby olive growers who have a couple of olive trees in their backyards and often processed their oil in the Stolac oil mill in order to obtain oil from their olives, according to the Fena.
Domestic production meets the current needs of the population, and depending on the year, exports are also represented, which sometimes amount to a few thousand liters. Consumption per person in Bosnia and Herzegovina to date has been 0.24 liters, but there is a significant increase in consumption, which, as they say from the Institute, is the goal of promoting this product.
They point out that olive oils from Bosnia and Herzegovina are highly valued in the region, which is shown by numerous awards that our olive growers win in the Republic of Croatia and beyond, such as a global competition ‘The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition’ in New York where they won gold medals.
When it comes to the import of olive oil, it is mostly based on imports from the leading countries in olive growing, and these are primarily Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
Due to the new COVID-19 situation, the event “Olive Harvest Days 2021” will not be held according to the plan and current practice, which included an evaluation part and a workshop with a lecture on modern trends in olive growing and awarding plaques.
This year, everything except the workshop will be conducted in practice, and the date of the plaque award will be announced later.
The goal of the event is to increase the awareness of olive growers in accordance with world trends, which so far, according to oil quality indicators, indicates that olive growers from Herzegovina are at an enviable level, said the Institute.
As they emphasized, Herzegovina has its own specifics, which is located in the marginal areas of the olive growing area and as such bases its olive growing on the Neretva river basin with tributaries Trebizet and Trebisnjica.
Herzegovina as a region will in the foreseeable future work on the protection of geographical indications as a collective marketing tool that can be used to protect and promote olive products, as well as to improve the provision of public goods such as food heritage, landscape, traditional knowledge and rural economy.
However, Herzegovina as a region has already been included in a kind of olive collection “FLOS OLEI”, which is represented in 50 countries and is translated into English and Chinese, said the Federal Agro-Mediterranean Institute.
