Palestinian flavour goes global

18 May 2009

Oxfam's Sarah-Eve Hammond finds out about the booming Fair Trade sector in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

Imagine promoting a product that already faces international competition and which grows on land that could be confiscated at any time. These are the obstacles that the new marketing unit at the Fair Trade Development Centre (FTDC) in Bethlehem is trying to overcome to promote Palestine's bestseller: olive oil. Just as much a part of the local culture as the traditional keffiyeh, olive woodcarving and embroidery, olive oil is slowly becoming synonymous with Palestinian excellence and know-how.

It is pretty amazing to see the level of commitment to this project. Every time I visit the various co-operatives we always talk about the difficulties faced by farmers in the occupied territories such as movement restrictions and land confiscations. But what we like to discuss most are the changes the project has brought about for the farmers and their communities. Since the olive oil project started last year with the support of the European Commission, olive growers have learned how to take better care of the fruit and how to improve storage conditions to ensure the oil is extra virgin. Co-operatives are now pooling their resources for the greater good of the group and a better olive oil, and a fair trade price has been established to give farmers a better income opportunity. New ventures are even being explored in order to expand exports.

I met with Usama Khalilieh from the Fair Trade Development Centre at Bethlehem University to discover how Palestinian olive oil is conquering the world... or just about!

"Of course, there is much more Italian and Spanish olive oil on the international market," says Usama. "But the point is not to take over. It would be impossible. We just want to increase our share of the global market and promote the fact that soon our oil will be fairtrade all the way from the moment the olives are picked in the fields to the moment the consumer buys our oil."

The project has three components: Oxfam and partners work with co-operatives to improve the quality of their olive oil; the marketing unit tries to secure new opportunities and works towards getting fairtrade accreditation. At present, the co-operatives we work with have been accredited by the World Fairtrade Organisation. However, even though this step is already considered a great milestone, it only applies to the organisations themselves. What is needed now on the product itself is the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation's internationally known green and blue logo.

"At the moment we work with Al Reef to export our oil abroad. Since the World Fairtrade Organisation already certifies Al Reef as a Fairtrade organisation we want to expand and secure accreditation for the entire supply chain with the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO). This will mean that our farmers, their co-operatives, the exporter, everybody working to produce olive oil are applying fairtrade principles throughout. This will give us a lot more exposure and marketing opportunities, and it will strengthen the farmers' income."

However, setting up a strong marketing unit takes time and Usama knows it. "The farmers here have seen many projects and a lot of them have failed, so it is difficult for them to understand that Oxfam, FTDC and the Palestinian Farmer Association's Union are there to work hand-in-hand and for no profits at all. We want this marketing unit to be ultimately controlled by the farmers. At the end of the project, in just over a year, they will have to decide if it becomes a union, a new co-operative or a profit-making company."

The fair trade sector is booming in the occupied Palestinian territory, with more initiatives blossoming. The latest one called the Palestinian Fairtrade Network will hopefully bolster the sector by grouping all fairtrade actors together.

With recurrent problems such as land confiscation by the Israeli authorities and movement restrictions for farmers and exports, the marketing unit, co-operatives and their farmers will need all the support they can get from donors like the European Commission and the Palestinian Fairtrade Network to ensure Palestinian olive oil meets its global potential.

Background:
The development of the olive oil sector is critical as it is an important source of food security, labour and cash income for a large sector of the West Bank population. This year alone, the olive industry aims to contribute over £87 million to the fragile West Bank economy - 18 per cent of total agricultural production.

Despite the increase of olive oil production in the past few years, many small-scale farmers have not been able to make a decent living due to constraints in exporting produce to traditional markets (Arab countries and Israel). Palestinian olive oil does however have strong international export potential: olive oil experts confirm that if the oil is well produced it can be considered as a unique and flavoursome product able to compete with the best oils from all over the world.

Facts:

• In the West Bank and Gaza some 45 per cent of agricultural land (over 900,000 dunums) is planted with an estimated 10 million olive trees with the potential to produce between 32,000-35,000 tons of oil


• Approximately 93 per cent of the olive harvest is used for olive oil, and the remainder for pickles, table olives, and soap


• Up to 100,000 families depend upon the olive harvest for their livelihoods to some extent


• Olive trees make up 80 per cent of orchard areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip


• Total amount of olives to be picked in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: 128,000 tons


• It costs farmers £2.30 to produce one litre of olive oil. One litre of olive oil is sold from £3.60


• Confiscation of lands: According to The Hague agreement, occupation forces must not confiscate lands or properties from the people under occupation. According to B'T'Selem and Peace Now, since 1967, 132 Israeli settlements have been built in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem). The jurisdictional areas of the settlements are defined in military orders as "closed military areas," to which Palestinian entry is forbidden without the military permission. Using a complex legal-bureaucratic system, Israel has set aside about 40 per cent of the West Bank for settlements, primarily to build them and to reserve land for their expansion.