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Photos: Desert truffles are Libya’s ‘manna from heaven’

Braving the cold and hostile Libyan desert, Milad Mohammed scratches the ground to extract what he calls "manna from heaven": white truffles coveted as a delicacy at home and abroad. The fungus known locally as "Terfas" is the only thing, besides some wild grass, that grows under the desert sands nurtured by the combined effect of rain and cold temperatures at night.

Updated on: Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM IST

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Milad Mohamad, a Truffle hunter, searches for white truffles or ‘Terfas’ in Al-Hamada al-Hamra desert, in Libya’s western Nalut province. Terfas have been consumed since Roman times for their delicate taste as well as their nutritious and medical properties, and are sold to Gulf countries as a luxury food item. (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

Milad Mohamad, a Truffle hunter, searches for white truffles or ‘Terfas’ in Al-Hamada al-Hamra desert, in Libya’s western Nalut province. Terfas have been consumed since Roman times for their delicate taste as well as their nutritious and medical properties, and are sold to Gulf countries as a luxury food item. (AFP)

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Milad Mohamad holds up a white truffle. Mohammed harvests the white truffle as a hobby and each year before springtime he treks through the desert, southwest of Tripoli, to look for them. “I don’t earn my living from this. It’s a passion,” said Mohammed, in his 60s, a retired civil servant from the western city of Zintan. (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

Milad Mohamad holds up a white truffle. Mohammed harvests the white truffle as a hobby and each year before springtime he treks through the desert, southwest of Tripoli, to look for them. “I don’t earn my living from this. It’s a passion,” said Mohammed, in his 60s, a retired civil servant from the western city of Zintan. (AFP)

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For hours he wanders across the desert by foot or in his pickup truck, covering dozens of kilometres. “It’s like a therapy, a way to purify myself from the chaos of the city,” he added as he took a drag from a cigarette outside a tent he pitched in the desert after a day’s work. “It’s a beautiful place, and rough, and you feel so isolated here.” (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

For hours he wanders across the desert by foot or in his pickup truck, covering dozens of kilometres. “It’s like a therapy, a way to purify myself from the chaos of the city,” he added as he took a drag from a cigarette outside a tent he pitched in the desert after a day’s work. “It’s a beautiful place, and rough, and you feel so isolated here.” (AFP)

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He stops at several spots to scratch the sand with his hands or a cane in search of white truffles. Usually they are buried deep underground. “There is nothing more satisfying than to use your bare hands to dig into the sand and extract these delicious truffles,” Mohammed said. “They’re manna from heaven.” (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

He stops at several spots to scratch the sand with his hands or a cane in search of white truffles. Usually they are buried deep underground. “There is nothing more satisfying than to use your bare hands to dig into the sand and extract these delicious truffles,” Mohammed said. “They’re manna from heaven.” (AFP)

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Searching for this white gold in the oil-rich North African country that descended into chaos after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 is no easy task. Libya has been gripped by unrest since the revolt, various groups vying for control of its oil and cities, while the desert has become a hornet’s nest for jihadists and criminal gangs. (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

Searching for this white gold in the oil-rich North African country that descended into chaos after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 is no easy task. Libya has been gripped by unrest since the revolt, various groups vying for control of its oil and cities, while the desert has become a hornet’s nest for jihadists and criminal gangs. (AFP)

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Over the past few years the price per kilo of white truffles tripled to 130 dinars ($33), a merchant said, as harvesting the fungus became more difficult due to Libya’s unrest and unfavourable weather conditions. This year the harvest was good thanks to abundant rain but that meant that the cost per kilo dropped to 80 dinars. (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

Over the past few years the price per kilo of white truffles tripled to 130 dinars ($33), a merchant said, as harvesting the fungus became more difficult due to Libya’s unrest and unfavourable weather conditions. This year the harvest was good thanks to abundant rain but that meant that the cost per kilo dropped to 80 dinars. (AFP)

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Milad Mohamad points with his stick during a search for white truffles. Wholesale transactions often take place at a tent erected on a road near Zintan. It is there pickers go to sell the truffles. “We endured very cold weather but the merchant is offering us a fraction of the price,” said Khaled Abdelwahed, a picker trying to negotiate a deal for eight kilos of truffles he collected after four nights in the desert. (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

Milad Mohamad points with his stick during a search for white truffles. Wholesale transactions often take place at a tent erected on a road near Zintan. It is there pickers go to sell the truffles. “We endured very cold weather but the merchant is offering us a fraction of the price,” said Khaled Abdelwahed, a picker trying to negotiate a deal for eight kilos of truffles he collected after four nights in the desert. (AFP)

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“The merchant’s making a better profit than us, and all that time he keeps warm in his tent” while truffle pickers do all the hard work, Abdelwahed said. The buyer Khalifa al-Sahraoui, a merchant from Algeria who travels each year for truffle season between November and March, disagreed. “We buy the truffles and sell them to other merchants,” he said. (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

“The merchant’s making a better profit than us, and all that time he keeps warm in his tent” while truffle pickers do all the hard work, Abdelwahed said. The buyer Khalifa al-Sahraoui, a merchant from Algeria who travels each year for truffle season between November and March, disagreed. “We buy the truffles and sell them to other merchants,” he said. (AFP)

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A truffle hunter at work in Al-Hamada al-Hamra desert. Abdallah Miloud, another merchant, said the harvest is sold to middlemen who “sell them to clients abroad”. The Libyan white truffle is “of excellent quality” and “prized in Gulf countries”, he added. There are no official export figures for the truffles but according to Miloud, revenues from sales have “rescued several families” from financial hardship. (AFP)

Published on Mar 26, 2019 9:44 AM

A truffle hunter at work in Al-Hamada al-Hamra desert. Abdallah Miloud, another merchant, said the harvest is sold to middlemen who “sell them to clients abroad”. The Libyan white truffle is “of excellent quality” and “prized in Gulf countries”, he added. There are no official export figures for the truffles but according to Miloud, revenues from sales have “rescued several families” from financial hardship. (AFP)

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