Equal Exchange in the West Bank

On another day of our trip, we visited an olive oil press used by the Banizaid Alsharaya co-op. The press is owned by a father and son member of the co-operative. Once the olive harvest begins, the press runs 24 hours a day for two months. The whole community helps to load and unload bags of olives and the press is a gathering point for farmers and youth during this time. At the press, we watched as the olives traveled up a conveyor belt. Leaves were blown away and the fruit was washed by machines. Then the olives were crushed—pits and all—and the oil was filtered. Later it was siphoned into containers and transported back to the co-op to be stored in stainless steel tanks. In the future the Banizaid Alsharaya co-op plans to purchase a press that is owned and controlled by all of its members. And next year, the Al Zawyeh co-op will join with three other co-operatives to buy its own pressing station.

In December of each year, which is mid-to-late harvest, PARC sits down with all the co-operatives to determine the exact price of that year’s olive oil. As with most co-operatives, PARC and the co-ops establish one price for all of its members. Every year the extraction rate is different for individual farmers. Since it fluctuates every year, the co-ops have agreed to establish a single price per member for each harvest.  PARC also determines prices for the domestic market, the export market, for virgin and extra virgin, and for certified organic; these always exceed the cost of production and meet or exceed the established Fair Trade price. As orders come in, PARC collects the oil at the co-op stations and bottles it at the facility of Al Reef, PARC’s nonprofit exporting organization, owned by all of the co-ops.  Over the last 5-6 years, there have been enormous gains in capacity, quality control and bottling equipment.  We were extremely inspired by what we saw and confident that processes and skilled people are in place to yield an extremely high-quality bottle of organic extra virgin olive oil.

Two factors have contributed to the relatively recent development of co-operatives in Palestine. First, the disappearance of the Israeli market after the second Intifada in 2000 forced Palestinian farmers to pursue other export markets for their olive oil.  This path led them to the Fair Trade market and its requirement for volumes and consistent quality with various elements of documentation. The second factor was the Islamic tradition of passing land on to your children.  For example, if a father passes his 12 dunums (approx. three acres) of land to three children, they each receive four dunums if they are all boys; girls receive one half of what boys do. This has led to the land becoming fragmented and in turn more likely to be abandoned and to drop out of productive use.  Together with the promise of profitable markets, forming a co-op meant a new incentive was created for individual landholders, like Sania, to band together.

A number of undeniable hardships are ever present for Palestinian farmers.  First among them is water.  Climate change-induced drought has increasingly affected the production of trees in recent years.  But Israeli policies limiting access to water for collection and irrigation has likewise posed a serious obstacle to a thriving agricultural sector.  In fact, most water in the West Bank is diverted either to settlements or back to Israel.

On top of this is the problem of access.  Numerous checkpoints and the wall pose serious challenges to optimal cultivation practices.  In places, the wall separates a farmer from his or her grove and it is not possible to carry out the pruning and composting necessary to maximize productivity.  Resolution of the all-important issue of water rights was deferred under the Oslo Accords until a “final settlement.”

It’s impossible to separate the struggles of Palestinian olive farmers and our trade relationship from political struggles in the region:  access to water, the barrier wall, checkpoints, settlements, and frustration with the Palestinian Authority.  For Equal Exchange, this trip provided a first opportunity to begin learning how we might best contribute to just economic development in the West Bank.  We return sober about the prospects for an enduring peace in the region but highly motivated that our smallest of roles is a contribution in that direction.