Tunisia Seeks to Brand Olive Oil

Most of my posts on Tunisia are focused on the oppression and corruption of the ruling regime, but there is more to the Mediterranean nation that the awful Ben Alis and Trabelsis of course.

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Starting with olive oil. The country is the fourth largest producer of olive oil and I would reckon the best one in the world. Tunisian olive oil has no artificial ingredients, it is pure, rich, healthy and incredibly delicious. That is because not only is the fertile north an enviable place to grow olives - olive oil has been produced in Tunisia throughout the ages since the Phoenicians landed on its coast - but also because it is still made, in essence, in the world fashioned way:

Tunisians are seeking to better market their products and - as CNN's excellent reporter Ben Wedeman - noted this family is a culinary pioneer in that regard. Its products are boutique collections and they sell more than olive oil. The New York Times a while back wrote about their couscous:

Hand-rolled couscous from Tunisia is somewhat uneven and coarse-grained, and that’s part of its appeal. It cooks quickly to a beautiful texture and has a flavor that hints of nuttiness, features that make it worth the expense.

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M’hamsa Couscous from Les Moulins de Mahjoub, a company that also produces other Tunisian products, including olive oil, capers and sauces, is sold at Dean & DeLuca in 17.35-ounce jars for $12.

And also their olive oil, which is also sold at high-end Manhattan shops:

Alain Coumont liked the Tunisian extra virgin olive oil he was using in his Pain Quotidien chain of bakeries so much that he decided to sell it by the bottle. The delicate fruity-tasting oil, from Les Moulins Mahjoub, a century-old company near Tunis, is made from organic olives crushed between granite millstones, then cold-pressed in layers of straw mats.

The pale chartreuse oil, cloudy because it is unfiltered, is fairly thick, so it emulsifies beautifully in a vinaigrette. It is $15 a liter and can be tasted at Le Pain Quotidien, 100 Grand Street (Mercer Street), 1131 Madison Avenue (84th Street) and 833 Lexington Avenue (64th Street).

And you can buy their olive oil online at Dean & Deluca's website (the same bottle that is pictured above and referenced in the Times' article)

It makes sense that their are targeting a niche market. Even though Tunisia has 70million olive trees, the country's economy for the most part cannot be a large-scale producer. Tunisia's competitiveness - ranked by the World Economic Forum as the most competitive in Africa - will lay in its entrepreneurs producing and developing specified products which require skills not easily copied and selling to niche, preferably up-scale, markets.

A Tunisian producing, say, shoes in a factory can easily be made uncompetitive by China. Because shoe producing can be done anywhere - it requires no special skills and its origin is irrelevant to the consumer - and can always be made cheaper in some other developing country.

But let's see China produce olive oil that good. This is not something you can transplant elsewhere, it just cannot be done. Tunisia's economic future lies in such inimitable skills and high-quality goods.

If you're interested in reading more about Les Moulins Mahjoub.