Olive harvest 2026 – Rakovac family farm

This year’s harvest is over. It was hard work, and things did not always go to plan. Read on to find out how the 2026 olive harvest went for us and what kind of olive oil it brought us.

Before the harvest

Any experienced olive grower can estimate roughly how many olives they will harvest long before picking begins. That was the case for us, too.

Last year, we had a record harvest. In olive growing, though, you can hardly expect one record harvest to be surpassed by an even better one the very next year.

I estimated that this year’s crop would be around half of last year’s. And I wasn’t far off: we harvested 40% fewer olives than last year. However, the oil yield was very good this year, so there will still be plenty of olive oil.

The harvest

This year’s harvest saw a real rush at olive mills across Istria.

We start harvesting in mid-October every year, and this year was no exception. We began on 17 October and planned to finish the bulk of the harvest by 20 October.

Yet it seemed that EVERYONE had started picking olives at the same time, probably because the weather forecast predicted a turn for the worse from 22 October onwards. The pressure on the olive mills was incredible.

For example, on the evening of our third day of harvesting, we saw a queue of vehicles outside the olive mill stretching for more than 100 metres! We decided to deliver our olives the following morning instead. As the mill opens at 8 am, we planned to arrive at 6 am, hoping to be among the first in line. Even so, it was around 11 am before we finally got our turn to unload.

To ensure that olives are picked and processed at the right time, several parts of the harvest need to work together, each depending on the others:

• A well-organised team of pickers who work well together,
• enough crates for the olives and containers for the olive oil,
• a suitable vehicle for transporting large quantities of olives at once,
• unloading the olives and empty olive oil containers at a reliable olive mill in good time,
• returning to the olive grove, dropping off the empty crates for the pickers and loading the next batch of olives,
• collecting the filled olive oil containers from the mill and transferring the oil into larger storage containers at home,
• and repeating the whole process throughout the harvest.

If just one part of the process gets held up, everything comes to a standstill. That is why the harvest is so stressful for many olive growers.

We would like to thank everyone who helped us with this year’s harvest: Drago, Goran and his team, Davor and his team, and Ante and his team. 🙌🏻 Thank you all!

The result

After all the hard work and aching backs, the fruit of our labour is finally here! Our delicious Bilini extra virgin olive oil.

It is full-flavoured, fruity and fragrant. Its aromatic profile is clean and well-defined, with elegant herbal notes, particularly mint, rosemary and sage.

We also had a chemical analysis carried out on our new Bilini olive oil, like every year.

Orders

As always, you can order our fresh Bilini olive oil from our online shop. We recommend placing your order as soon as possible to avoid the December delivery rush. We’re sure you’ll enjoy it! 😊

Thank you to everyone who supports our work! 🎉