The Resilience of Tunisia’s Endemic Olive Varieties

Chetoui and Chemlali are the two main olive tree vari­eties endemic to Tunisia. Olive grow­ers in the increas­ingly hot and dry North African coun­try praise their resilience to cli­mate change.

Despite a sec­ond straight year of heat­waves and drought in Africa’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­try, pro­duc­tion rebounded to 220,000 tons, in line with the five-year aver­age.

“The resilience of these trees to cli­mate change is due to sev­eral fac­tors, includ­ing their adapt­abil­ity to cur­rent cli­mate con­di­tions and their abil­ity to adapt to chang­ing con­di­tions,” Donia Sfar, the export man­ager of Fermes Ali Sfar, told Olive Oil Times.

The pro­duc­ers behind the award-win­ning fam­ily com­pany have spent the past five decades pro­mot­ing these local vari­eties’ organolep­tic and health­ful qual­i­ties.

Fermes Ali Sfar’s efforts were rewarded at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, with its two Tesoro del Rio organic mono­va­ri­etal brands earn­ing Silver Awards.

“Founded in 1970 and passed down three gen­er­a­tions, Fermes Ali Sfar is a fam­ily busi­ness spe­cial­ized in the pro­duc­tion of olive oil and the mar­ket­ing of its own har­vested prod­ucts,” Sfar said.

“Fermes Ali Sfar runs three farms that extend more than 485 hectares and com­prise 25,000 olive trees at the base of the Zaghouan moun­tain in the north­east of Tunisia,” she added. ​“The main farm is equipped with a mill that con­tin­ues to press olives the tra­di­tional way, using gran­ite mill­stone and mat press­ing.”

Sfar believes that the com­pa­ny’s suc­cess, which has been awarded at three con­sec­u­tive edi­tions of the World Competition, derives from its focus on Chetoui and Chemlali.

While the two native olive vari­eties are still the most com­monly cul­ti­vated, there has been a recent increase in European vari­eties, such as Arbequina, Coratina and Koroneiki.

Coratina thrives in high-den­sity plan­ta­tions, while Arbequina and Korneiki can be grown at super-high-den­sity, which the gov­ern­ment and some pro­duc­ers view as the future of the country’s olive oil sec­tor.

“Chetoui and Chemlali have con­stantly evolved and adapted to the spe­cific cli­matic con­di­tions of their region of ori­gin over time,” she said. ​“Drought tol­er­ance, a cru­cial fac­tor for the sur­vival of cul­ti­va­tion, means Chetoui and Chemlali olive trees can sur­vive under con­di­tions of increased water stress.”

The two vari­eties are also remark­ably resilient to com­mon pests and dis­eases, which are inher­ently infre­quent due to Tunisia’s cli­mate. The com­bi­na­tion of fac­tors has made Tunisia the world’s largest pro­ducer of organic extra vir­gin olive oil.

Along with their drought and dis­ease resilience, Sfar said Chetoui and Chemlali demon­strate remark­able phe­no­log­i­cal flex­i­bil­ity.

“The abil­ity for these olive vari­eties to adjust their growth cycle in response to cli­matic vari­a­tions is a key ele­ment of their resilience,” she said. ​“Chetoui and Chemlali are known for their phe­no­log­i­cal flex­i­bil­ity, mean­ing they can adapt to chang­ing weather con­di­tions by adjust­ing the tim­ing of flow­er­ing and fruit­ing.”

Despite the resilience and adapt­abil­ity of the Chetoui and Chemlali olive vari­eties, Sfar said that con­sis­tently pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil remains a com­plex and demand­ing process in Tunisia.

Since ensur­ing the qual­ity of the olive oil begins with the olives, she said the com­pany har­vests ​“at the opti­mal time of matu­rity,” often sac­ri­fic­ing quan­tity for qual­ity.

“Our olives are processed quickly after har­vest to avoid dete­ri­o­ra­tion and oxi­da­tion,” Sfar said. ​“This rapid pro­cess­ing is essen­tial to pre­serve the aro­mas, fla­vors and ben­e­fi­cial com­pounds of our olive oil.”

“Once extracted, our olive oil is stored under appro­pri­ate con­di­tions to avoid oxi­da­tion and dete­ri­o­ra­tion and main­tain its qual­ity,” she added. ​“Finally, our qual­ity con­trol is car­ried out rig­or­ously to ensure that our prod­uct meets the high­est stan­dards.”

Undertaking this process each year takes time and expense, increas­ing the value of the olive oil qual­ity awards to the com­pany.

“Winning an award at the NYIOOC can only be a source of immense pride and sat­is­fac­tion,” Sfar con­firmed. ​“This rep­re­sents recog­ni­tion of our exper­tise, know-how and com­mit­ment to pro­duc­ing qual­ity olive oil.”

While the vast major­ity of Tunisian olive oil is exported in bulk to Spain and Italy to be blended, bot­tled and sold under European brands, Fermes Ali Sfar is part of a grow­ing con­tin­gent of pro­duc­ers shift­ing toward indi­vid­u­ally pack­aged exports, which pro­vide more eco­nomic value to local farm­ers and millers.

“These awards give addi­tional cred­i­bil­ity to our brands and allow us to stand out in a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket and attract the atten­tion of con­sumers look­ing for qual­ity and authen­tic­ity,” Sfar said.

“The recog­ni­tion gained from this vic­tory can open up new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties,” she con­cluded. ​“This could include an even stronger expan­sion of our inter­na­tional mar­ket pres­ence, access to new dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels or even part­ner­ships with more com­pa­nies.”