Desert truffle season is beginning in Iraq, and for many intrepid workers, this means a huge payday.
The delicacy can fetch $35 per kilo at the market, which is a windfall for a day's work.
At the end of January, hundreds go out into the wilderness to search for truffles, despite the danger of landmines that cover an 18-kilometer track where the truffles are most found.
Sarah tells The Nation :
“Every spring after the rains, people go into the fields to gather truffles; black truffles and white truffles,” says Sarah, a native of nearby Basra city, in southern Iraq and a recent hire by BP to work in the Rumaila Operating Organisation, the joint venture with PetroChina and the government’s South Oil Company.
“It is very dangerous and people are killed every year if they don’t stick to the designated paths,” she says, pointing at a vast area cluttered with various bits of industrial and other debris where any markings would be hard to discern.
Over 30 varieties of desert truffles exist. They have been prized for centuries, loved by Ancient Greeks, praised by Pharaohs and spoken about by the Romans. They emerge from the ground 76 days after the first rains, so the season rotates around the Middle East.
A Kuwaiti truffle vendor explains to Arab Times that, “The first truffles come from Algeria, because their rainy season begins early, in September. After that come truffles from Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. At the end of January, you have truffles from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait, and later on there are truffles from Syria.”