Across the Adriatic Sea from Puglia, the heartland of Italy's olive oil production, lies the virgin land of southern Bosnia. Now the area is threatening to break into the lucrative market for 'liquid gold', winning medals and helping put the country on the map. 

"When I started to plant olive trees, I was told: 'You're crazy'," recalls Dragan Mikulic, 65, who runs a 50-hectare orchard in Ljubuski, in Bosnia's southern Herzegovina region.

After little over a decade, he has become one of the top olive growers in the Balkans.

Wedged between high mountains to the north and the Adriatic Sea to the south, the grove's 7,000 trees stand in perfect rows beneath sunny skies.

"Look at this sun. It's like this all the time. The water coming down from these mountains passes through here on its way to the sea," Mikulic says.

The region has benefited from new drilling technology that has allowed access to underground water. 

Due to the lack of rain, the olive trees need between 150 and 200 liters of water per day, according to Mikulic, who has drilled two boreholes in his olive grove and installed a drip irrigation system.

Officially, 776 tons of olives were harvested in Bosnia last year, 27 percent more than the previous year. While the industry is still small compared with neighboring Croatia, the regional leader, many of its producers are winning plaudits for their oil. 

Mikulic's neighbor and fellow olive oil producer, Jure Susac, says he drilled a borehole nearly 300 meters deep.

"I know that the olive loves a lot of water. I have plenty of it. The pump never stops working," Susac says.

This has paid off – he has won medals for his trees, the majority of which are bearing olives this year. Hailing the turnout as "exceptional," he hopes to squeeze out more than 500 liters of oil from them.

In every competition he entered with his oil, he won the gold medal, Susac says. "We are now often ahead of the Croatians," he proudly boasts. 

Video editor: Steve Chappell