OPG Pensa Bogdan Wins Gold for Organic Levantinka at 2022 NYIOOC

OPG Pensa Bogdan from Croatia has won a Gold Award at the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world's most prestigious olive oil quality contest.

Our community, as well as our family, are proud of us for putting our small town of Kaštela on the map among the world’s best olive oils.

Ivan Vicenco Pensa, owner

Situated in Kaštela, just north of Split, the centuries-old family producer earned its first-ever NYIOOC award for its Ivanica Levantinka brand, an organic medium Levantinka.

"We finally feel like we have proven our quality," owner Ivan Vicenco Pensa said. "It’s a great motivation to keep working."

"Our community, as well as our family, are proud of us for putting our small town of Kaštela on the map among the world’s best olive oils," he added.

This year's success is especially gratifying after a challenging harvest for the producers last year.

"Our harvest usually starts in October and we try to pick all the olives before the big autumn rains which we usually witness in mid to late October," Pensa said.

"We had a lot of strong windy days during the harvest season," he added. "In Croatia, there is also a real struggle to find adequate workers during picking season."

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, held each spring in New York, 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.