April 20, 2009 -- The truffle season in Algeria is working magic this year. Traders are happy with the profits, export and freight companies can barely meet the demand and, most encouraging of all, many new job opportunities are available for those willing to pick the delicacy.

Truffle mushrooms are plentiful in the southwest Algeria desert. Farmers do not need to put in any effort to grow them. All they need is the rain.

This year, the sky was generous.

Since the beginning of the season, trucks drive into Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers loaded with truffles and drive out empty. The cargo destination: the Gulf States and Syria.

The Algiers-Dubai flight, for example, has been so overwhelmed that freight managers had to limit the quantities of truffles loaded every day. Airport officials said that only 15 tonnes are now allowed per flight, due to the lack of personnel and equipment.

Officials at the freight division of Air Algérie said more than 80 million dinars profit was recorded in February. And they can do much more if they had better resources, said freight division chief Achour Beldjilali.

Export companies are just as happy.

"It’s all going very well," said Ahmed Ghanem, who manages export company El Ahliya. "The truffles are selling like hotcakes, and customers are always asking for more."

Anouar Slimani manages a number of businesses in Dubai. He has been exporting truffles to the Gulf countries. Now is the time to expand, he said.

"I’m starting my first deliveries with the Syrians, sending quantities of two tonnes per flight. For the moment, it’s making a tidy sum. Next year, I’m hoping to set up business on my own."

In some areas, the product can barely meet the local demand, like in the Boussaâda region, where people consume most of the truffles they pick.

Young truffle hunters from Boussaâda and Bechar (800 kilometres southwest of Algiers) are surprised that their common food staple has turned into a big business, but they are not complaining.

"In the past, you would pick them just for your family or to supply the locals. Now that the Syrians want many of the truffles, we’re working non-stop," says Ahmed Moualy, a young man from Abadla, near Béchar.

"True, it’s seasonal work, but it’s good money," he adds.

But, given the high demand for truffles, the best places are under siege from the regulars.

"I learned this job from my father, who learned it from his father. We know the desert like the back of our hand. But now that the businessmen are into truffles, there’s competition. Sometimes, you have to use force to defend your territory. Sometimes, you have to sneak out at dawn to make sure no-one follows," Bachir Reguigui, from Béchar, tells Magharebia.

"The pressure from the big retailers, along with the exporters, means that we cannot meet all the demand," says young truffle-picker Moussa Touhami.

But he remains optimistic. "With the recent rain, the crop will be plentiful. I’m thinking, with some friends, of setting up a cooperative to store truffles and maybe to sell them too, outside of the Boussaâda region. Why not?"