In fact, it is only the coastal area of Slovenian Istria that produces olive oil in any quantity.  A band about five kilometers wide and 40 kilometers long, running from west of Koper to just east of Portoroz, gets the benefit of the Mediterranean climate.  Inland the mountain ranges cut off the Mediterranean influences and the weather is too cold to support olive trees.

Of course olive cultivation is not new here.  Two hundred years ago there were two or three times the number of trees that there are today but successive frosts decimated the groves and the political system did nothing to encourage individuals to renew them.

Today renewal is most definitely the name of the game.   New olive groves are being planted and there are now around 300,000 trees.   To date most of the new plantings have been the local Istrian White or Italian varieties such as the popular Leccino with some Maurino and Frantoio.   Production is expected to be around 400 tonnes this year and this will grow as the new trees come on stream.

Slovenians are keen to extend olive production in a region which is not particularly good for other crops and which needs a source of work outside the tourist season.  Cultivation is very traditional with small mixed farms growing olives, vines and vegetables.   The largest producers only have around three or four hectares of olive trees. The north Istrian countryside looks very like the more traditional parts of Tuscany down to the stately cypress trees dotted across the landscape.

Given the type of farming and the hilly nature of the countryside producers have decided to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.  There is now an approved and highly sophisticated testing laboratory and an IOOC accredited tasting panel which are part of the University of Koper.  An application has also been put in to the EU for  DOP status for Slovenian Istria.  The DOP standards are higher than those for extra virgin status, eg. acidity 0.5% rather than 0.8% and Peroxide 5 rather than 20.  Unlike other DOP area it also has outside accreditation by BioVeritas under integrated production procedures.

While I was in Slovenia I attended a conference run by the University at Koper on the indigenous varieties of Istria.  The Slovenians are particularly keen to preserve those varieties which originated in the region.   However, the first step has been to decide exactly which varieties are indigenous and which have merely been there a very long time.  This has been a difficult task as many varieties have different names in different villages and others which are the same have different names. 

So far seven genuinely indigenous varieties have been confirmed.  Unfortunately for the purists who seem to lean towards indigenous varieties for the sake of them this list does not include the Istrian White which has been quite widely planted in recent years.  The evidence is not conclusive as to whether the Istrian White came from Italy many centuries ago or whether it is indeed indigenous.

This subject seemed to be of particular importance to the local growers though I was not able to establish why they were so concerned.  There was talk of the praise which was heaped on Istrian oil in the past and that maybe this was oil pressed from the old indigenous  varieties.   But the quotes really were in the very distant past and the question of whether we would want the same kind of oil today was not asked.

My feeling was that the old varieties would be a good choice if they produced more interesting oil, if they yielded more oil or were more resistant to disease and I got varied answers on these points.  In fact, there is a good deal of detailed research going on in experimental groves which in due course will go towards answering some of these questions.   

On the quality front work is also proceeding on encouraging producers to up grade their storage units to stainless steel and to install temperature control, very important this year with ambient temperatures much higher than usual at the harvest. 

On the marketing front the next step is to move towards more bottled oil and less oil sold in bulk or at the farm door. A good deal of work is needed on packaging – many of the oils that are bottled have labels that are extremely old fashioned in their design.  Farmers also need to think in terms of building up a range of products of olive oil related products.