New Approaches to Branding Croatian Olive Oil

Summary

Croatian devel­op­ment expert Mira Lepur pre­sented her vision for posi­tion­ing Croatia’s olive oil sec­tor glob­ally at a sym­po­sium in Postira, empha­siz­ing the need for a strong brand­ing strat­egy and sus­tain­abil­ity. Lepur high­lighted Croatia’s suc­cess at inter­na­tional olive oil com­pe­ti­tions and called for a national strat­egy to define goals for pro­duc­tion, research, and brand­ing, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of qual­ity, authen­tic­ity, and cul­tural iden­tity in the sec­tor.

Postira, Croatia — Croatian devel­op­ment and brand­ing expert Mira Lepur pre­sented her vision for posi­tion­ing the country’s olive oil sec­tor on the global stage dur­ing the International Symposium on Olive Oils of Croatia and the Adriatic Coast, held last week in Postira on the island of Brač.

Lepur, who has spent much of her career man­ag­ing European devel­op­ment projects while remain­ing active in her family’s olive oil busi­ness, argued that Croatia’s pro­duc­ers must be viewed within a global con­text.

“Even when we sell in domes­tic shops, we are com­pet­ing inter­na­tion­ally,” she said. ​“On local shelves, Croatian oils stand along­side Spanish, Italian, Greek, Tunisian, Chilean and Australian prod­ucts.”

She added that Croatia’s annual tourism influx of nearly 16 mil­lion vis­i­tors pro­vides another direct link to inter­na­tional mar­kets. ​“Every bot­tle that leaves with a tourist becomes a small ambas­sador of Croatia abroad,” Lepur said.

Croatian Success on the World Stage

In her pre­sen­ta­tion, Lepur con­nected her pro­fes­sional back­ground in strate­gic plan­ning and ter­ri­to­r­ial brand­ing with her family’s long involve­ment in olive oil pro­duc­tion. Their Lepur brand has been rec­og­nized at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

She noted that Croatian pro­duc­ers con­tinue to dis­tin­guish them­selves at the world’s most impor­tant olive oil con­test, win­ning 125 awards this year — 101 gold and 24 sil­ver — out of 1,244 entries from 28 coun­tries. Based on the per­cent­age of awards com­pared to entries, Croatia ranked among the most suc­cess­ful coun­tries.

From European Institutions to the Olive Grove

After more than 16 years of study and work abroad — in Germany, France, and Belgium, includ­ing a decade in Brussels — Lepur returned to her native Šibenik. She later led the Šibenik-Knin County Development Agency for eight years before found­ing her own con­sul­tancy focused on strate­gic devel­op­ment and brand­ing.

Alongside this work, she remains closely tied to her family’s groves in north­ern Dalmatia. The Lepur farm also oper­ates a mod­ern mill and was recently included in Flos Olei, the annual inter­na­tional olive oil guide­book.

A group of visitors from the U.S. at the Lepur olive mill. (Photo: Mira Lepur)

“This year, for the first time, we opened our groves and mill to vis­i­tors from around the world, from North America to Asia,” she said. ​“Tours of the groves, pre­sen­ta­tions of native Dalmatian vari­eties and milling demon­stra­tions attracted strong inter­est.”

A Branding Challenge

At the sym­po­sium, Lepur called for Croatia to strengthen olive oil brand­ing through coor­di­nated strate­gies that high­light qual­ity, her­itage and sus­tain­abil­ity.

Croatian olive oils have seen a dramatic rise in quality. (Photo: NYIOOC)

“Olive oil is not just food, but part of our iden­tity,” she said. ​“Each bot­tle car­ries a story of the land and peo­ple behind it.”

She empha­sized sev­eral pri­or­i­ties:

invest­ment in infra­struc­ture such as olive routes linked with cul­tural and cycling trails;upgrad­ing mills with tast­ing rooms and edu­ca­tional cen­ters;devel­op­ing pro­fes­sional events, from young oil fes­ti­vals to cul­tural pro­grams in groves;intro­duc­ing school pro­grams on olive oil;train­ing chefs, guides and tourism pro­fes­sion­als as ambas­sadors;and expand­ing dig­i­tal pro­mo­tion, includ­ing inter­ac­tive maps and mul­ti­me­dia sto­ry­telling.

Lepur stressed sus­tain­abil­ity as the foun­da­tion of future growth. With greater sup­port for eco­log­i­cal prac­tices and new tech­nolo­gies, she said, olive oil could be posi­tioned as a model of green pro­duc­tion.

Toward a National Strategy

She also called for a national strat­egy to define goals for pro­duc­tion, research, sus­tain­abil­ity and brand­ing.

Italy’s recog­ni­tion of ​“oleo­tourism” in law, she said, pro­vides a valu­able exam­ple of how agri­cul­ture and tourism can be linked to cre­ate added value. A sim­i­lar frame­work in Croatia, devel­oped with input from grow­ers, mills, local gov­ern­ments and tourism boards, could strengthen the sec­tor.

A step in that direc­tion came in Postira, where four Dalmatian asso­ci­a­tions announced plans to join forces under a new club, Oleum Primum Dalmaticum, and pur­sue a stricter ​“Ultra Virgin” olive oil cat­e­gory.

A panel on branding Dalmatian Ultra Virgin Olive Oil at the Postira Symposium

“Such ini­tia­tives show the poten­tial of bot­tom-up energy in our sec­tor,” Lepur said.

She con­cluded that Croatian olive oil may never com­pete with global lead­ers in terms of vol­ume, but it can stand out through its qual­ity, authen­tic­ity, and cul­tural iden­tity.

“Croatia will not win with liters, but it can win drop by drop,” she said.