In the heart of the plain of the Souss region, Taliouine is a pretty Berber town located 119 km from Taroudannt, 1500 m above sea level and located in an area of ​​impressive beauty. This small Anti-Atlas village holds a treasure: one of the most expensive spices in the world. It is the saffron capital of Morocco. With its unique aroma derived from violet flowers, saffron is called “the roots of the earth”.

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The inhabitants of Taliouine, particularly welcoming Berber chleuhs, will offer you adorable necklaces of dried seeds and colored with saffron.
Eleven producers – gathered in the Coopérative Agricole de Taliouine and supported by the Moroccan NGO Migrations et Développement – cultivate small plots (maximum one hectare) and, together with their families, harvest from mid-October to mid-November. Every day, early in the morning, saffron growers go out at dawn to pick the flowers when they are still closed.
then they arrange them in a cool room and separate the precious stigmas. Each phase is manual and the fertilization is natural. There are no particular varieties of saffron, but it seems that only on the Souktana plateau, thanks to the soil, the climate and the savoir faire of the producers, is such a valuable product obtained: a little less colorful than the others, but with a fragrance and more intense flavor. Alongside saffron, alfalfa, vegetables are grown and, on the edge of the fields, olive trees, almond trees and herbs grow. The name of the cooperative (Taliouine) is linked to the village of the same name, which is located on the plateau: the town’s souk is historically the main market for saffron in the area. Traditionally it was the traders of the large Jewish community of Morocco who dealt with the sale of saffron, preferring pistils polished with olive oil. Now this technique has been abandoned following the emigration of the Jews, and it is the Arab and Berber traders who buy large quantities of saffron from the producers, in the small weekly markets, to resell it in the same markets, in the large Moroccan cities and throughout the Maghreb. , and in Europe.

On the way to Taliouine, you can also visit the remains of the ancient Kasbah of Glaoui, a historical monument dating from the late 18th to early 19th century, also known as kasbah télouet. Along the main street, small inexpensive restaurants welcome you for grills and traditional Moroccan dishes. Every year the International Saffron Festival is organized which is mainly an opportunity for exchange between the various operators in the sector.

Close to Taliouine you can do some very pleasant trekking to jbel Siroua, towards Afszimmer or Askaoun. Its small Berber villages offer excellent examples of local architecture presenting beautiful fortified granaries and superb mountain landscapes.