Graduated in IT development, it is above all the love for his native land that has guided Bassem Sendi towards his entrepreneurial path. In 2015, he founded the group of farmers of the organic olive sector of Sened in the governorate of Gafsa.
Bassem Sendi has several strings to his bow. He is an expert in organic agriculture and aromatic and medicinal plants and also the vice-president of the national chamber of olive producers. But he really asserts himself as an entrepreneur when becoming a founding member of the GDA of Sened olive farmers.
“It’s a long-standing passion that comes from our Berber origins and has been passed down from father to son. In the Amazigh village of Sened, the elders used to live in the hills. It was a tradition that when a child was born in the village, the elders would go down to the plains to plant 7 olive trees and 3 fig trees. It was said that the child would grow up strong with the roots of olive trees. From this influence the olive tree has become a symbol of the region.”
Olives of Sened are a singular variety, called “krich”. The “krich” olive has the particularity of being very rich in oil, and its medicinal virtues have long been known. It is by rediscovering this richness and its potential at the beginning of the 2000s, that the inhabitants of Sened committed themselves to develop this heritage product of their region.
In 2015, Bassem created a group to pursue on this solid foundation. “Originally, we were a small group of 7 people, determined to develop the olive sector in Sened. Then we included about ten farmers.”
Through this group, Bassem strives to enrich the technical knowledge of farmers in his region. He organized several training sessions, tasting sessions, and gradually grew up their passion for the olive of their land.
“Farmers are not always aware of the potential and especially of the techniques for adding value to olives. It is necessary to guide them in order to teach them the right methods of harvesting, transport, packaging, pressing… but also how to avoid making mistakes. That is why we launched a training session when the group was created.”
Since its creation, the GDA has been an ideal solution for farmers who no longer wished to sell their production to the region’s oil mills at low prices. It was also enabling better traceability of the olives of these farmers, whose organic accreditations it very quickly obtains.
“The products of our region are not valued. If we do nothing, it is our heritage that will disappear. We must work on this promotion, follow up and pass on these methods to the next generations so that the excellence of our olives and its oil can live on.”
In order to launch a marketable and attractive product on the markets, Bassem undertook to realize a BMC and his business plan with the support of the project Mashrou3i. He joined the HP LIFE entrepreneurial training program in 2020 when the Covid19 pandemic begins.
“Working on our BMC with Mashrou3i’s experts, we learned how to prepare our dashboard, identify the strengths and weaknesses of our business. We also worked on our social banking plan with the project experts; this was one of the most useful steps in our journey. I am extremely grateful to them today for learning how to do a SBP that is essential for a social entrepreneurial activity.”
The support and the assistance of the project Mashrou3i carries on throughout 2021. In the last training session in November, Bassem and other GDA founders learn how to cope with and recover from failure as an entrepreneur. They also learn how to make the legal file of a brand creation, how to strengthen communication within a farmers’ network to foster unity. This last training session is also an opportunity for Bassem to meet entrepreneurs in other sectors of activity, and to create synergies to enhance the value of Tunisian local products, such as the use of olive wood for decoration or the association of pottery for the packaging of olives.
“While participating in an international competition at the olive fair in Sfax, we were spotted by several Tunisian and foreign tasters among 51 candidates. We won the first prize for olive oil. The impact of this gold medal on the region was enormous. The inhabitants, the farmers, all were proud of the impact of this victory on the village of Sened.”