On 26th of May 2021, the unique International Alps-Adriatic Pumpkin Seed Oil Exhibition took place already for the third time in a row in the atrium of Varaždin County palace. Once again, it gathered pumpkin oil producers from Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia. Due to epidemiological reasons, the exhibition took place in a different format, gathering only winners of gold, silver and bronze medals.
The exhibition was co-financed by the Alps-Adriatic-Alliance and gathered not only members of the Alliance, but also other Croatian counties. 168 samples went through, until now, the most rigorous evaluation, since the point threshold has been significantly raised, and thereby the scale of quality.
The exhibition champion is the oil-mill ‘Sinković’ from Krapina-Zagorje County, in the category of virgin pumpkin seed oils, which also won gold medal with another product in the category of cold pressed pumpkin oils. The award of € 2.000 was handed over by the Chair of the Alliance, Varazdin County Prefect, Radimir Čačić.
“This is the biggest specialized exhibition of pumpkin seed oils in Europe and the products are really of best quality. The competition is really high and it’s not easy to win the gold medal, let alone to become the champion. I would like to congratulate the Sinković family and all the other producers who participated in this exhibition. Also I would like to thank all the counties which recognized the value of pumpkin seed oil and supported their producers in participation at this exhibition. I am sure that the number of samples will increase in the following years and that the quality confirmed by these medals will have a great impact on the profit and promotion of oils of each winner.” – said Mr. Čačić.
The evaluation committee awarded 22 gold medals, 104 silver and 23 bronze medals. They were especially glad that none of the samples was disqualified due to chemical parameters. They concluded that many producers improved the quality of their oils, which is an added value of this exhibition, since it gives them an opportunity for them to learn and improve their products.
Krapina-Zagorje Prefect, Željko Kolar, expressed gratitude to Varaždin County for organizing the Alps-Adriatic Exhibition, giving the exhibition an international character and gathering producers from the whole continental Croatia. He added that it would surly help producers in the breakthrough to international markets.
The winners in the category of virgin pumpkin oils are:
Oil-mill ‘Sinković’ (Krapina- Zagorje County, CRO), ‘Agro-Noršić’ (Zagreb County, CRO), Darko Šipek (Varazdin County, CRO), Matija Mesar (Krapina-zagorje County, CRO), Andreja Petrović (Varazdin County, CRO), Olajutő Szovetkezet (Baranya County, HU) and Josip Žmegač (Varazdin County, CRO).
The winners in the category of cold-pressed pumpkin oils are:
Family farm ‘Liege’ (Krapina-Zagorje County), pupils’ cooperative „Zdenček“ (Varazdin County, CRO), Family farm ‘Osrečak’ (Krapina-Zagorje County, CRO), Batha-Porta (Vas County, HU), Ivica Cesar (Zagreb County, CRO), Verica Zakojč (Medjimurje County, CRO), Oil-mill Sinković (Varazdin County, CRO), Miran Kolarič (Slovenia), Zlatko Vularić (Zagreb County, CRO), Danijel Kunštović (Krapina-Zagorje County, CRO), Luka Ivoš, (Virovitica-Podravina County, CRO), Vjekoslav Kopljar (Osijek-Baranja County, CRO), Tomislav Kovač (Karlovac County, CRO), Peter Balogh (Zala County, CRO) i Family farm ‘Kukec’ (Zagreb County, CRO).
The third Pumkin Seed Oil Exhibition was organized by Varazdin County, with the support of the Alps-Adriatic Alliance and in cooperation with the following Croatian counties: Krapina-Zagorje, Medjimurje, Zagreb County, Sisak-Moslavina, Koprivnica-Krizevci, Osijek-Baranja, Bjelovar-Bilogora, Karlovac, Virovitica-Podravina, Vukovar-Srijem, Pozega-Slavonia, the City of Zagreb, the Agricultural Chamber of Austria (Klagenfurt), Farmers’ Forestry Chamber (Kmetijska gozdarska zbornica) of Slovenia (Ptuj and Murska Sobota) and the Association of Agricultural Producers from Hungary.
Finally, a praise-worthy act was the donation by Varaždin County of 50 litres of pumpkin oil of different producers to the Caritas organization of Varaždin County. The donation was handed over by the Head of Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dragutin Vincek, PhD.
„It is commendable that Varaždin County and Prefect Čačić think of us, not only on holidays, but during the whole year. There are some 300 people coming to our soup kitchen (meal center) and I hope this example will be followed by other institutions as well.” said the director of the Caritas Varazdin, Mr Ante Šola.
Pumpkin seed oil is a product existing in the whole Alps-Adriatic area. Promotion and branding of joint products are major tasks of the Alps-Adriatic Alliance and this exhibition one of the best-practice examples.
For the exhibition´s catalogue click here
Watch a video about this year´s Alps-Adriatic Pumpkin Seed Oil Exhibition: