(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in Tunisia’)
Sfax was a major trade centre of the eastern Mediterranean. As a result,
until the 1860s, the first Greeks who settled in Sfax worked in the export
sector. Although the majority of the Greeks traded Tunisian olive oil and
grain, some of them were acting as resellers. From the 1860s, the Greeks
immigrated to Sfax and associated with the sponge fishery. Since the sponge
fishery activity focused on the North Africa coasts, several Greeks, who
originated from the islands of Kalymnos, Symi, Hydra and Aigina discovered the
rich and high-quality sponge beds of Tunisia. The number of the Greek migrants
gradually increased and in 1888, they established a community.
