OPG Celini Overcomes Drought to Win Gold

OPG Celini has won an award at the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world's largest olive oil quality contest.

I feel great and the award means a lot to me, and is an additional wind at my back for further production.

Tomislav Čudina, owner

The Croatian producer earned a Gold Award for its Olea Viola brand, a medium blend. "I feel great, and the award means a lot to me and is an additional wind at my back for further production," owner Tomislav Čudina said.

In the 2022/23 crop year, OPG Celini produced 2,700 liters of extra virgin olive oil using traditional methods. Čudina cited brought as one of his most significant challenges this harvest.

"It was a very dry year, and it was a very big challenge to maintain the development of the olive fruit in order to obtain extra virgin olive oil of high quality," he said.

Held each spring in New York, the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition is the world's largest and most prestigious olive oil contest. Its annual listing of award winners is considered the authoritative guide to the year’s best extra virgin olive oils.

The complete list of winners can be viewed in the Official Guide to the World's Best Olive Oils.