Harvesting Tunisia’s liquid gold with artisanal olive oil producer Kaia – The National

Harvesting Tunisia’s liquid gold with artisanal olive oil producer Kaia – The National

As you drive south from Tunis, the coastal towns and marshlands of Tunisia's population centre give way to vineyards and wheat fields first cultivated by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago. Those, in turn, slowly recede until nothing is left but olive trees. Tens of millions of them, stretching out in neat rows in the sandy soil for kilometres in every direction, the silent, stalwart core of Tunisia's agricultural might.

“Tunisia is the world's third or fourth largest producer of olive oil, depending on the season, but people in France or in America have never heard of Tunisian olive oil,” said Sarah Ben Romdane, the founder of artisanal olive oil brand Kaia. In the imagination — and on the shop shelves — of most corners of the world, olive oil is strictly the territory of the Italians, Greeks and Spanish.

“That points to a problem — how can we be the third largest producer and no one knows about us?”