Kuwaitis love truffles regardless of price

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Sales at truffle market slow

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 20: With the early arrival of truffles in Kuwait the day before yesterday the sales at the truffle market was slow since the sellers suffered this year due to lack of rain and the circumstances imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic which has restricted movement between countries. The Al-Seyassah daily met with some visitors to the market and truffles sellers to know what they had to say about the truffle season this year.

A Kuwaiti, who identified himself only as Bu Jarrah said the Kuwaitis love truffles and buy it no matter how high its price, especially since Kuwaitis always love something that is not easily available.

Another Kuwaiti, A.K., said he loves truffles and will have to buy the small size quality, as it is the only one available in the market. He added that truffles are used in cooking with ‘majboos’ and barbecue, it is useful for men since it is considered a tonic which boosts vigor. Hamid Al-Saeed believes that the price of truffles in Kuwait is exaggerated, and the merchants buy it from Iraq at low prices, as Iraqi truffles are sold for no more than 3 Kuwaiti dinars, but in Kuwait its price exceeds 15 dinars, so the state must activate its monitoring role on prices, especially that the Kuwaitis cannot dispense with it.

Another Kuwaiti A.S. pointed out he buys truffles regardless of its price, and indicated he prefers the Kuwaiti truffles, but unfortunately, only the Iraqi truffles are available at the moment, which is sold at a high price despite its small size Boufahd mentioned that the truffles season starts from mid-October in the West Asia region, which includes Kuwait and the neighboring countries, while the truffles season in North Africa begins in mid-September, so the local market used to import this commodity from Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, but the lack of rain caused the scarcity in those countries.

The merchant Abu Abbas al-Nuri says the size of the truffles that actually arrived from Iraq is not big, so a kilo of it is sold for up to 15 dinars, and the smallest of it is sold for 10 dinars a kilo, pointing out that as a merchant, he buys a kilo for 13 dinars and half a dinar and sells it for 15 dinars. He pointed out truffles are not cultivated, but rather is a product that appears on its own caused by thunder and rain, so the lack of rain this year is behind the scarcity of truffles.

By Najeh Bilal Al-Seyassah Staff

This news has been read 45562 times!