🫒 Chemlal

Chemlal (Chemlal de Kabylie) is Algeria's main olive cultivar, found mainly in mountainous Kabylia. According to a study of the country's official cultivar collection (the journal Genes, 2020), it covers about 30% of Algerian olive orchards. The World Catalogue of Olive Varieties of the International Olive Council (IOC) gives its synonyms as Achamlal, Achamli and Achemlal.

Kabylia is a mountainous region in northern Algeria, divided by the Soummam River into Greater Kabylia in the west and Lesser Kabylia in the east. Researchers regard it as an important reserve of local olive cultivars: in Lesser Kabylia alone they found a separate genetic group of 13 cultivars. Judging by chloroplast DNA markers, Chemlal belongs to the western Mediterranean lineage typical of wild olives in Spain and Morocco and of Maghreb cultivars.

According to the IOC description, the tree is vigorous and spreading, with a crown of medium density. The fruit is of medium weight, moderately elongated and markedly asymmetric, and black when fully ripe; the leaves are long and broad.

Chemlal fruit is used for oil. A 2021 study tested 20 oil samples from four Algerian cultivars, Chemlal among them: 60% met the extra virgin category and the rest the virgin category, and the oleic acid content of these oils ranged from 64.8 to 80.1%.

Why it matters to you. Chemlal and Chemlali sound almost alike, but they are different cultivars: Chemlal is Algerian, Chemlali is Tunisian. The IOC catalogue shows genetic profiles that differ at all five markers, and Chemlal fruit is larger.