ASGÁTA, Cyprus — Christos Charalambous might be 79 but he is
several meters up a carob tree, harvesting a fruit known as “black gold” on the
island of
Cyprus as his grandson works below.
اضافة اعلان
For some, carob has
long been relegated to the status of a less appealing substitute for chocolate.
But in Cyprus, its
thick brown pods are also eaten raw or ground up to make sweet syrups, spreads,
toffees, drinks and as a sweetener, while its seeds have industrial uses.
“It’s one of the
fruits that you use up entirely,” Charalambous said from his field in
Asgata.
Branches rustle and
sway as he and his grandson, Theophanis Christou, 20, hit the pods loose with
long sticks, sending carob raining to the ground.
The pair have been
working for about three weeks in the late summer heat, collecting about 3
tonnes of carob by early September.
Christou, a
shipping and finance student, is keen to join in his grandfather’s labors.
It’s “hard to do”,
Christou said, but it’s “work that can keep the family together”.
‘Extra income’
In the nearby coastal village Zygi, individual growers bring bulging sacks
of pods into a carob mill.
Zygi “started as a
carob village” and its name refers to the weigh scale used for the fruit, said
community representative Christos Konstantinou.
In Zygi and
elsewhere across the eastern Mediterranean island where the carob tree is
native, disused or repurposed carob facilities are reminders of the industry’s
heyday last century.
“Carob has been
known as the black gold of Cyprus because many farmers used to have carob; ...
it was the main occupation of the villagers,” said Stavros Glafkou
Charalambous, from the Cooperative Carob Marketing Federation.
The federation,
which runs the Zygi mill and other facilities, said it works with around
1,500–2,000 small producers, most of them harvesting carob for “extra income”.
George Pattichis,
75, from Vavla, said he has been coming to the Zygi mill for more than half a
century.
The former forester
said some of his carob trees were planted by his grandfather.
“I am the last
generation — my children have other jobs,” said Pattichis.
‘Increasing again’
In 2019, when the growers’ price was around 35 euro cents (now $0.34) per
kilogram, carob represented less than 1.5 percent of the Republic of Cyprus’s
crop production value, according to statistics provided by the agriculture
ministry.
This year, carob
farmers told AFP the price was nearing one euro per kilogram.
“I will sell to
whoever offers me the best price,” said Anastasis Daniel, 65, in Choirokoitia
village.
Bags of harvested
carob were stacked by his house ready for the mill, though he said he would
also keep some for animal feed.
Global demand for
the seeds’ locust bean gum — used as a food thickening agent — drives the carob
price, said Marios Kyriacou from Cyprus’s Agricultural Research Institute.
Cypriot carob pod
and seed exports were worth almost eight million euros last year, according to
the official statistics. Egypt was the biggest taker of the pods fit for human
consumption, and Italy of the seeds.
Cyprus had been
ranked as the world’s third-biggest producer of carob in the 1960s, Agriculture
Minister Costas Kadis told AFP.
Production then
declined, he said, “but now it is increasing again”.
‘Drought-resistant’
Carob “is very important for Cyprus because it needs little insecticides,
fertilizers, and water — and this is important when we talk about climate
change,” the minister said.
In late 2017, a
University of Cyprus project planted almost 5,000 carob saplings and
subsequently gave around 28,500 more to interested farmers, project scientist
Chrysi Tomouzou told AFP.
Researcher Kyriacou
said carob was “a very drought-resistant tree species” that has been used as a
crop in Cyprus “for at least the past 3,000 years”.
“The carob pod is
rich in sugars” and dietary fibers, Kyriacou said. It also contains a “rare
type of sugar-alcohol” that is “recognized as an anti-diabetic agent”, he said,
noting this was “of interest for further clinical research”.
Kyriacou and his
team have been studying genetic and other variations in Cypriot carob.
They say their work
could be crucial if Cyprus decides to ramp up production and processing.
But for now, both
often remain a low-scale affair.
At a festival in
Anogyra, where stalls sold everything from carob sweets to ice cream, Andreas
Andreou from Polyxenis Carob Products said carob syrup was his family firm’s
most popular product.
Despoula Georgiou,
61, demonstrated how to make pasteli — a kind of carob toffee that her village
is known for.
It’s “only (made
with) carob juice, no sugar at all”, she said.
“I’ve been doing it for 50
years,” she said. “I learned it from my mother and aunt.”
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