Support for Palestinian olive oil exports

Thanks to a EU-funded program, some Palestinian producers received the Fair Trade label that will allow them to reach European markets. And get sustainable revenues.

Julie Schneider - Palestine, Eurojar

“Before the implementation of the project, we used to produce less quality olive oil. Today, we are able to produce high quality extra virgin olive oil that can be exported.” Ayoub, a Palestinian producer, speaks proudly about his business. Thanks to the Oxfam GB program carried out two years ago, Ayoub learned, with 80 other farmers from his cooperative situated in Deir Istya – a village in Northern West Bank with 3000 inhabitants surrounded with colonies - to select top quality olives and not to mix together olive oils that have different acidity rates. In coordination with the Palestinian Farmers Union and the Bethlehem University's Fair Trade development center, Oxfam provided those producers with necessary equipment and tools, such as storage tanks, as well as training courses on productivity, quality, and certification requirements.
EU contribution amounts to 90% of the whole project budget, which is 2 million Euros. This project is part of a wider programme - for the development of the Palestinian olive oil sector - funded by the EU (€6 million). The aim is to allow the concerned cooperatives - selected on the basis of motivation - to obtain the Fair Trade certification of approval, whose main advantages are: stable income, high quality products and autonomy for producers.

Over the 31 beneficiary cooperatives, ten have already received this gem and began exporting deftly to Europe under the brand name Zaytoun. “The Israelis stopped us once from transferring our olive oil. That was two years ago. The quality of the products was thus altered due to bad conservation conditions. Since then, apart from long waiting times at checkpoints, we did not encounter any other major problems”, says the project coordinator at Oxfam, Haitham Hassasneh. He adds that “the program is expected to end in July 2010, but it might be extended until the end of the year.” The first two years of the project were particularly difficult, notably when it came to olive harvest. In 2009, the olive oil production was about 6,000 tons while it reached 40,000 tons in 2006.

Way of resistance
Thanks to this respite period, Oxfam hopes to achieve better results and to help selected cooperatives, representing about 800 producers (among 80,000 producers in the West Bank), get the Fair Trade certification. The Palestinian olive oil is the first of its kind to carry a Fair Trade mark.

Ayoub’s cooperative is expected to get soon the Fair Trade certification; its request must be evaluated by an expert committee. A windfall for famers… “Before the implementation of the project, we were unable to sell our products. Today, things have changed; we can sell top quality olive oil in Europe, at good prices”, says Ayoub. Thanks to the fair trade, the producers can survive market fluctuations. They can cover fixed costs and make profits, which gives them more confidence in themselves and in their business. According to Willow Heske, Oxfam communication officer, “this initiative constitutes a way of resistance. Producing olive oil on occupied lands (80% of the West Bank olive trees are planted in area C that is under full Israeli control) shows that those lands belong to the Palestinians.”

See the website: Oxfam International