The shearing season has started well in Tajerouine au Kef, giving rise to its first wool festival, celebrated last weekend in popular jubilation. It was thus a real local carnival, where breeders, shearers and craftsmen, gathered at the T’d’Art entertainment center in the region, had the opportunity to exhibit and open up to a sector with strong economic and touristic potential. Laine Friga, as we like to call it, is also a quite simply inherited activity, marked with the seal of an ancestral legacy and a social and popular imagination. Even a sector that is well worth the mass.
Wool in all its forms
Like the harvest season, sheep shearing has become a festival in its own right. It has an aspect that is as folkloric and cultural as it is economic. Or a piece of history that enshrines a spirit of classic entrepreneurship and inspires the values of solidarity and living together. In Tajerouine, wool is worth its weight in gold, able to stimulate investment and generate employment opportunities. If there is will, nothing prevents this activity from being a source of wealth, in many respects. Craftsmen and craftsmen know this well, except that the financial support structures are called upon to move the lines. This first edition is only a taste of others that will undoubtedly improve over the years.
Already, the sheep’s fleece is on the way to improving the lot. Because quality makes the difference and weighs in the wool market. So this first festival has both an economic and festive dimension. In a competition, the shearers showed virtuosity and a certain professional mastery. Their effort was generously rewarded. Cutting the fleece flush is a regenerative technique for making wool. Its carding is necessary for a good weaving. In fact, all these processes go hand in hand, once morest the backdrop of a festive ritual well anchored in time. At the festival, such a tradition was highlighted and took place in a folkloric atmosphere accompanied by music and the tasting of local dishes. Craftswomen sing their own heritage repertoire. On such an occasion, Keffois culinary art is always omnipresent. And now wool is more than a festival.
Tourism and crafts inseparable
However, this activity has been reduced to its artisanal aspect, without providing it with the means for its development. Electronic mowers, for example! Other incentive privileges would be likely to bring added value. Especially since the governorate has nearly 500,000 heads of sheep, producing regarding 750 tons of wool, or 8% of the national market. While the wool yarn represents regarding 25%. Still, the raw material continues to be a problem, which affects local craftsmen. Hence it is time to promote the sector. The klim keffois needs it enormously, especially since its fabric made of precious wool yarn is not valued enough and even less marketed. Thus, a whole value chain is needed. Creation and innovation being a lever of its development.
Inaugurating this first edition, the Minister of Tourism, Mohamed Moez Belhassine, recalled that his department is working to develop a strategy to promote Tunisian crafts, a sector which contributes 6% of GDP and generates around 350 thousand jobs. However, this ancestral profession is struggling to recover, due to a lack of the necessary raw materials and recovery. Local crafts must regain their brilliance. The klim keffois was the subject of a competition combining creativity and authenticity. Because craftsmen and young designers are helping to restore its image. Wool shearing, klim keffois, local products, archaeological sites, tangible and intangible heritage, Tajerouine has everything to become an ecotourism destination. Alternative tourism will also have the chance to prosper there. A vocation to which we must pay more attention. Be tourism differently! We will come back to it.
