The 2022 olive harvest is in the full swing and after another year, a cycle has ended. This is a perfect moment to look back at the results of our work in 2021. When we summarize what we went through, experienced and achieved during the year, 2021 is the most successful year ever for our family in terms of awards and recognitions we have won.

The first prize we won in March was the “Extra Gold Medal” for our Organic and Istra blends in Bari at the International Competition for the Best Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the World – BIOL. Just a few days later, at the International Sol D’oro Competition in Verona, we won gold medal and a special award in the category of the best organically grown blend for our Organic.

After that, a successful series of awards, praises, and good results began. May brought us good news from New York where Ex Albis won gold in the category of Best Oils in the World for 2022 at the NYIOOC World Competition. Although 2021 was very demanding for us in terms of olive grove maintenance, weather and the number of olives, the effort, and the work paid off after all.

The good strike continued when the EVOOLEUM guide 2023 rated Organic with a high 89/100 points and was awarded the label “Best PDO Croatia”.

This was followed by the traditional Leone D’oro – International Olive Oil Competition on Lago di Garda. This competition is specialized in biodiversity, high quality production, and recognition of small producers of extra virgin olive oil. Their expert panel declared our blend Romano the best international blend of extra virgin olive oil in the world. Among the more important awards we would like to mention are those received by the International Olive Oil Council – IOC, which awarded our special blends Organic and Istra with a gold medal. International Contest Masters of Olive Oil awarded the same blends with “High-quality standard gold selection” at the big competition in Monte Carlo.

In July, our blends Istra and Atilio won awards from AIPO – the International Regional Association of Olive Oil producers. In addition, Atilio dominated the fruit note competition and won gold in the “Delicate fruttiness” category, and Organic in the “Medium Fruttiness” category. World’s Best Olive Oils in addition to Organic, also awarded our oil mill and OPG, and included us in the TOP 10 best producers according to the results of the 7 most important annual competitions. The famous world guide Flos Olei, a specialized guide to the world of extra virgin olive oils, rated us this year with 97 points out of 100, which positively surprised us considering the fact that we have practically subscribed to 95 points for the past 16 years. This guide evaluates olive oils from 5 continents throughout the year and publishes only the best 500 producers, and we are really proud of the fact that we have been present in the guide for 17 years in a row.

The crown of everything we have achieved this year is the olive oil Oscar – Il Premio Magnifico – an association that brings together the best producers of olive oil in the world, and which declared us as the L’Azienda dell anno – in translation, producer of the year. All our oils have been awarded with olive stars, and three blends have even received the maximum of three stars.

Being the best among the world’s best manufacturers is an exceptional honour. All these awards are the result of the dedication, love, passion, and work of the entire OPG Chiavalon team. The potential of our autochthonous varieties such as buža, bianchera, rosignola, carbonazza in combination with top technologies and modern ecological agrotechnical measures a winning combination which, now it is obvious, is recognized in the world. We are especially proud that everyone in the olive growing world already knows about our Istria and Vodnjan and we are becoming an undisputed synonym for extra virgin olive oil of extremely high quality.

We are returning to the harvest 2022 with the desire that it will be as successful as the year before.