Christos Charalambous may be 79 years old, but he’s standing several meters up a carob tree harvesting a fruit known as ‘black gold’ on the island of Cyprus while his grandson works downstairs.

For some, carob has long been relegated to the status of a less attractive substitute for chocolate.

But in Cyprus, its thick brown pods are also eaten raw or ground to make sweet syrups, spreads, toffees, drinks and as a sweetener, while its seeds have industrial uses.

“It’s one of those fruits that you consume completely,” said Charalambous of his field in Asgata.

Branches rustle and sway as he and his grandson Theophanis Christou, 20, hit the pods with long sticks and rain carob on the ground.

The couple have been working in the late summer heat for about three weeks, collecting about three tons of carob by early September.

Christou, a shipping and finance student, would like to join his grandfather’s work.

It’s “hard to do,” Christou said, but it’s “work that can keep the family together.”

In the nearby coastal village of Zygi, individual growers bring bulging sacks of pods to a carob mill.

Zygi “started as a carob village” and its name refers to the scales used for the fruit, said community representative Christos Konstantinou.

In Zygi and elsewhere on the eastern Mediterranean island where the carob tree is native, disused or repurposed carob plants are reminiscent of the industry’s heyday over the last century.

“Carob is known as the black gold of Cyprus because many farmers used to grow carob…it was the main occupation of the villagers,” said Stavros Glafkou Charalambous of the Cooperative Carob Marketing Federation.

The association, which runs the Zygi mill and other facilities, said it works with about 1,500 to 2,000 small-scale producers, most of whom harvest carob for “extra income”.

George Pattichis, 75, from Vavla, said he has been coming to Zygi Mill for more than half a century.

The former forester said some of his carob trees were planted by his grandfather.

“I’m the last generation – my children have other jobs,” said Pattichis.

In 2019, when the producer price was around 35 euro cents (now 34 US cents) per kilogram, carob accounted for less than 1.5 percent of the value of the Republic of Cyprus’ crop production, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture.

This year, carob farmers told AFP the price was one euro per kilogram (2.2 pounds).

“I sell to whoever offers me the best price,” said Anastasis Daniel, 65, in Choirokoitia village.

Sacks of harvested carob were stacked next to his house for the mill, although he said he would keep some for animal feed as well.

Global demand for the seeds’ locust bean gum (LBG), used as a food thickener, is driving up the price of locust beans, said Marios Kyriacou of the Cyprus Agricultural Research Institute.

According to official statistics, exports of carob pods and seeds from Cyprus amounted to almost eight million euros last year. Egypt was the largest purchaser of the pods fit for human consumption and Italy of the seeds.

Cyprus had been ranked as the world’s third largest carob producer in the 1960s, Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis told AFP.

Production then went down, he said, “but now it’s going up again.”

Carob “is very important for Cyprus because it requires little insecticide, fertilizer and water – and that’s important when we talk about climate change,” the minister said.

In late 2017, a University of Cyprus project planted nearly 5,000 carob seedlings and then distributed around 28,500 more to interested farmers, project scientist Chrysi Tomouzou told AFP.

Researcher Kyriacou said carob is “a very drought-resistant tree species” that has been used as a crop in Cyprus for “at least 3,000 years”.

“The carob pod is high in sugar” and fiber, Kyriacou said. It also contains a “rare type of sugar alcohol” that is “recognized as an antidiabetic,” he said, noting that this is “of interest for further clinical research.”

Kyriacou and his team have studied genetic and other variations of the Cyprus carob tree.

They say their work could be crucial if Cyprus decides to ramp up production and processing.

But for the time being, both often remain a modest affair.

At a festival in Anogyra, where stalls sold everything from carob candies to ice cream, Andreas Andreou of Polyxenis Carob Products said carob syrup was his family business’s most popular product.

Despoula Georgiou, 61, showed how to make pasteli – a type of carob toffee her village is known for.

It’s “just (with) carob juice, no sugar at all,” she said.

“I’ve been doing this for 50 years,” she says. “I learned it from my mother and my aunt.”