Olive oil - the lifeblood of Palestine

Forty-two year old olive farmer Mahmoud Issa looks out across the 150 dunams (15 hectares) of olive groves that provide his living. As a member, he says he speaks for all the farmers in the Anin Co-operative when he describes his excitement at his co-op becoming Fairtrade certified

The passion for his work is clear. ‘The zaytoun, the olive, means everything to us,’ he says. ‘My father and my grandfather farmed on this land, and now my children work alongside me harvesting. Our olive oil is of the highest quality because of the fertility of the land and we use traditional farming methods.’ In Palestine, the zaytoun or olive tree is revered and symbolizes many things, including family, land and hope. But it doesn’t just have spiritual significance, olive and olive oil production is a vital source of income for many farmers in the region. Often the land has been in their family for generations and extended families rely on olives for their livelihood. As well as financial support, olive oil is enjoyed by the family and bottles are sent to family members working in other towns or countries. There is a high yielding harvest every other year. From October to November, most members of the family will be involved in picking from early morning to dusk. Schools begin their lessons earlier or even close so that everyone can help with the harvest.

Mahmoud’s home village of Anin sits in a picturesque valley just outside Jenin. There is just a single road into the village as Anin borders an illegal Israeli settlement area, so is surrounded on three sides by a wire fence. Around 40 farmers belong to the Anin Co-operative. Some of the farmers in the village own olive groves in the settlement area and have to cross an Israeli army checkpoint to tend their crop. The checkpoint is open for a few hours in the morning and early evening and is patrolled by soldiers in tanks. Some of the farmers used to work in a nearby larger village to earn extra income when harvesting ended, but as that village too now lies within the settlement area and getting a permit can take as long as three or four years, they can no longer do this. Faced with increasing financial hardship, farmers are forced to look for work elsewhere, which means leaving their land for long periods of time. They worry about the deteriorating quality of their olives if they leave their groves unattended for too long. Mahmoud says ‘All I want is a fair price for my olives so I can continue to farm and support my family.’

The olives are harvested by a combination of shaking the trees and climbing up to pick them. Then they are transported to a nearby oil press. The olives must be pressed as quickly as possible and then stored in stainless steel containers to control the level of acidity. The farmers in the Anin Co-operative use the local village press, storing the olive oil in mobile storage containers before transferring the oil to their exporter in Jenin. Among the first things the farmers say they would like to buy with their Fairtrade premium are more mobile storage containers to retain the quality of their olive oil. The Anin Co-operative is one of the first farmers’ organisations to be certified and is a member of the Palestine Fair Trade Producers <br>Company (PFTPC). In all eight co-operatives, consisting of about 265 farmers, have just become Fairtrade certified.

As this begins to happen in 2009, Mahmoud says the benefits to small farmers like him will be significant. ‘In the past, we wer e often forced to sell our products at a loss due to the economic situation, but we are hoping that Fairtrade will help re-establish small farmers’ faith in the sustainability of the agricultural sector in Palestine.’

The oil is available from Zaytoun, Equal Exchange, Traidcraft and Essential Trading amongst others. Look out for the oil on supermarket shelves soon.
www.zaytoun.org

www.equalexchange.co.uk

©   Spring 2009 Fair Comment