No more almonds from Kasserine

Last summer the almonds finally received the long-awaited organic certification after three years of conversion time. The next step was to obtain Fair Trade certification. In 2016 we were able to sell 9,700 kg of the Tunisian almonds solely through the gebana direct shipping. One reason for the great success of this product was certainly the exceptional quality of the almonds, for which we regularly received positive feedback.

Difficult Region

But now everything changed. Our intention to work as directly as possible with the farming families could not be guaranteed even after years of effort. The Kasserine region is, on one hand, too remote for our partner South Organic based in Kebili/Tunisia, and on the other hand it is politically one of the most unstable regions of Tunisia and, because of its location near the Algerian border, a retreat for Islamist terrorists. A good, up-to-date impression of the region is provided by this article on swissinfo.ch.

Because of these difficult circumstances, our local partner has now decided to end cooperation with the farming families in Kasserine.

A sudden end to the success story? From gebana’s perspective, into which we invested a lot of time, energy and money to develop this new product, definitely. For the farmers the decision is at least temporarily bearable: the local almond market in Tunisia has developed very dynamically recently, and with demand prices have also risen. These are currently even slightly higher than organic market prices, and at the same time certification costs and strict quality requirements are no longer an issue. How sustainable this development in the Tunisian market is cannot be assessed at present.

New Almond Suppliers

We are particularly saddened by this development, because economic prospects would be especially important in this economically and politically difficult region, not least to curb radicalization (see link, interview at the very bottom).

In the future we definitely want to source almonds from Tunisia again. Our partner South Organic is currently looking for almond growers who are located in a closer and more accessible area.

In the meantime we source our almonds from the mountains of Pakistan. Our wild apricots, cherries and walnuts also come from here. Our long-standing Pakistani partner sent us a sample of almonds and convinced us. The Pakistani nuts taste a bit sweeter, less bitter and are somewhat smaller than the Tunisian ones. However, they are just as crunchy.

In the coming weeks we will sell the last almonds from the Tunisian project and then switch to the Pakistani ones. Try this new variety too! As soon as there is news regarding almonds from Tunisia, we will inform you again.