Istrian Producer Wins Gold for Ča Brand EVOO

OPG Grubešić Tone, from Croatia, has won a Gold Award at the 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition for its Ča brand, a medium-intensity Istrian Bjelica.

Winning a Gold Award at a competition like the NYIOOC twice in a row is certainly a confirmation of our work and motivation for the future. It shows us that we are heading in the right direction.

Tone Grubešić, owner

In the 2019/20 season, the Istrian company produced 1,600 liters of extra virgin olive oil using traditional methods.

"Winning a Gold Award at a competition like the NYIOOC twice in a row is certainly a confirmation of our work and motivation for the future," owner Tone Grubešić said. "It shows us that we are heading in the right direction."

He added that this year's awards were particularly gratifying after a very difficult start to the 2019 harvest.

"2019 was a difficult year from the very beginning," Grubešić said. "January was warm, rainy and humid, which facilitates the development of disease and can lead to reduced crop yield."

"May, the month of flowering, had been the wettest in the last 40 years," he added. "However, the pollination period went very well and the crop yield was higher than we expected."

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, held each spring in New York, is the world's largest and most prestigious olive oil contest and 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 on the Official Index of the World's Best Olive Oils