Picking Olives on the Croatian Adriatic

Title: Picking Olives on the Croatian Adriatic
Broadcast date: 2006-01-25 - Duration: 4'30''

Country: Croatia, HRT - Coproduction: Networking

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Good afternoon. You are watching another edition of "Euromagazin". One of the most demanding chapters of the negotiations between Croatia and European Union will be opened on 5. December in Bruxelles -- agriculture and rural development. Experts claim that Croatia should look for its comparative advantages for the launching of its agricultural products in the Mediterranean agriculture. "Euromagazin" reporter Ante Kolanović has paid a visit to Rava, an island in the Zadar archipelago, where almost every inhabitant is busy picking olives.

Ante Kolanović:
In order to get to Rava, an island covered with olive trees, you must be very lucky. That is because, except on Sundays, a ship sales to Rava only once a day, so you can't get back to mainland until the day after. Rava, in the center of which there used to be "the center of the world", was once an island with more than 500 inhabitants. Today it survives only thanks to the trembling hands of elderly pensioners.
These hands are quite busy these days. Miljenko Dunatov has more than 300 olive trees. They have born more fruit than ever before. However, this fact doesn't bring him much joy, because half of the crop will not be picked.

Miljenko Dunatov (16,45 -- 17,01):
"Only the old people have stayed here and they are too weak to maintain all this. There is no youth here. There is no life for them here and it's very difficult. We old people will do what we can."

Just like the ship, the information about what should be done before we join the European Union, what olive registry and quotas mean, don't find their way to these people easily. Besides, factionalized land is a unique problem of all these islands.
Njegomir Mavar (24,00 -- 24,13):
"It is specific for these islands that you can't find a whole piece of land to plant the olive seedlings, because we know how they used to be planted."
Josip Mavar (11,20 -- 11,33):
"You see what it's like here! One is here, this one is mine, this one too. But this one belongs to someone else. There is no room to organize a technology. We can only stick with the traditional way. Rakes and awnings. That is all."

Although it sounds like a paradox, the Ravans won't be preparing new plants. Even Ivan Mavar, one of the two men on this island who have received the government incentive, is not very optimistic.

Ivan Mavar (29,31 -- 29,48):
"We won't be planting, but neglecting a part of the olive trees, because there is no one left to cultivate them. Like most Ravans, I only do this as an additional activity. What we have now is cultivated by pensioners."

Miljenko Dunatov (17,43 -- 17,55):
"If European Union saw all this, how many uncultivated olive trees we have, they wouldn't have to tell us ahead..."

The number of hectares planted with olive trees in Croatia is still unknown. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are 15.500 hectares of olive trees. But the Bureau of Agriculture claims that there are 26.500 hectares. Some unofficial data indicate that by the end of this year 40.000 olives will be cultivated and 6.000 tons of olive oil produced in our country.
"We should do many things in order to be well prepared for the membership in European Union.", says the expert who has dedicated his whole life to olives and olive oil production.
mr. Marijan Tomac (6,02 -- 6,24):
"Our people first have to rehabilitate the neglected olive trees and give them life once again. They have to write them down for those to come and give the statistics an accurate list of all olive trees. And the state first has to sort out the land registry so that we can know who the olive trees belong to, because the land is usually registered under the names of those who have passed away three generations ago."
Although the data has to be coordinated, we know that we need to plant around 5.000 olive trees before entering the European Union in order to secure a good starting position or quota that corresponds to our capacity.

mr. Marijan Tomac, independent agricultural expert (5,02 -- 5,23):
"It will be difficult to raise this quota later and plant more olive trees. In some countries you have to pay in order to raise the established quota. For example, in Italy you would have to pay 15.000 euro per hectare for a vineyard. The same will happen here. It will be very expensive."
Although we like to think that we are a country with a long tradition of olive growing, it's amazing that we spend under one liter of olive oil per head a year. Greeks use as much as 26 liters per head. To reach the EU standards, we must change our primitive production methods. The new land registry would give us an insight into the actual situation and help control the black market.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Rava
• Croatia
• Olive
• Maslina
• Hrvatska

[Solitude1313]

Good feature, good reporter. I'll visit Rava...

[ravljanin]

You'll never forget it!

[milenka3000]

I love olive oil and I always look for olive oil from different parts of the world. I had olive oil from Rava just recently that I went there. I think it has an "excellent" flavor, it's far better than the italian, greek, spanish or north african olive oils...I have recently tasted olive oil from Australia...and none compare to the olive oil from Rava. However, there is a catch to find out..you have to go to Rava to be able to enjoy this precious delicious oil...you won't be sorry......