Danijel Stojković Kukulin believes the high-phenolic segment of the olive oil market will continue to grow as he pushes his production to new heights.
The season in the Mediterranean will be remembered for the early start of the 2024 olive harvest.
In the south of Italy, mills have been working since September 1st and in Andalusia, Spain, the harvest of Gordal table olive variety is already underway.
Meanwhile, the first new oil is already flowing in Slovenia, the small European country sandwiched between Italy and Croatia on the northeastern coast of the Adriatic Sea.
“Last year, we harvested on September 14th, and this year, we moved the date three weeks earlier,” said Danijel Stojković Kukulin, an olive farmer and biochemist.
“We were interested in what kind of oil would be produced from the olives harvested and processed in August, what its characteristics would be and ultimately what the yield would be,” he added.
Stojković is a member of Terra Centuria, a cooperative of young olive growers. Many of them focus on organic cultivation and early harvests.
Stojković’s first extra virgin olive oil of the year, made from the Istarska bjelica variety on August 23rd in the cooperative’s mill, pleasantly surprised everyone. Along with other vital components, the first analysis showed more than 1,500 milligrams of polyphenols per liter.
Read the full article: https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/production/slovenian-cooperative-focuses-on-phenol-levels/133718