Activities

One of the main activities of the Cooperative is production of seedlings of local olive cultivars (buza, zizolera, istarska bjelica, rosinjola, karbonaca, puntoza,). As we are registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development as suppliers of planting material, we produce this material in cooperation with several nursery gardens in the Republic of Croatia.

Production is based on the reproductive materials taken from registered mother blocks of olive trees (materials are currently taken from members of the Cooperative, in the future we are planning to take them from our own mother blocks, which are currently being planted).

We produce several tens of thousands of olive seedlings annualy.

Production of extra virgin olive oil
As of the olive harvest in the year 2009, we have started the production of our own extra virgin olive oil. We purchased about 5.500 kg of olives from our members and processed them into about 700 liters of extra virgin olive oil. Of course, we also developed and registered our own olive oil "brand" under the name "OLIVIS", and we introduced it to the market. (Name Olivis is a derivate of two words: oliva - a local name for olive, and Istria. This name reflects the product for which it was created - Istrian extra virgin olive oil. Brand name also features an additional letter Q, which in combination with the letter V in the word Olivis forms the inital letters of words Vodnjan Quality. Brand logo also features stylized olive leaf, which is located in the lower right corner of the letter O, thus creating letter Q - the initial letter of word Quality. In addition, this letter O with the leaf looks like an olive, therefore completing the overall brand image.)

Presence at fairs and festivals
During the year 2009 we promoted our olive oil and participated at several olive oil fairs and festivals (the 5th Vinolive Fair in Vodnjan, The Days of Young Olive Oil in Vodnjan, fairs in Umag, Rijeka, Trieste, Split, National park Brijuni, Istria Gourmet). We won several awards and recognitions for the quality of our olive oil, as well as for its packaging.

PROJECTS
In cooperation with the Faculty of Agronomy in Zagreb, our Cooperative is planting olive collection orchard and mother blocks. This project is co-financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development and Vodnjan town. Full title of this project is "Collecting olive varieties and cultivars for ecological olive production". Project is implemented in phases, it started with the concession for cca 4Ha of land. Collection orchard will have over 120 varieties of olives from various parts of the Adriatic coast - each variety will be represented by 6-7 trees, so in the last stages of the Project we should have over 600-700 olive trees.

This collection will provide the platform for scientific research and monitoring of the economic performance of olive varieties, especially local varieties from Vodnjan area, which are the basis to obtain the Protected Designation of Origin for extra virgin olive oil of Vodnjan. The olive collection will be planted in accordance with the scientifically based methods, in order to meet all biometric standards. Agricultural Cooperative Vodnjan will benefit from the economic exploitation of the orchard.

While planting this collection orchard, the Cooperative will also plant its own mother block. This mother block will enable the Cooperative to produce its own olive seedlings and therefore complete the production process of its own planting material from its own resources.

Cooperative is providing its members with the raw materials at affordable prices, in cooperation with several suppliers in Vodnjan and Pula.

Plans - When next bidding of the Ministry of Agriculture for the lease of state agricultural land is announced, we will compete for the land where we can plant our own olive grove. We also plan to build the plant for receiving, processing and storage of agricultural products (primarily olves and olive oil), and therefore finalize our business process. Of course, we will continue to promote our olive oil and to produce olive seedlings from our local olive varieties.