Organic olive oil from Palestine

Friday, February 26, 2010

In Palestine, especially in the West Bank, grow a lot of olive trees. It is no surprise that many farmers earn their money with olives. Mahmoud Abdou has 150 olive trees, he also cultivates some herbs. Trainings about the quality of olive oil, production and processing techniques helped him improve his products. Besides, the prices of organic fair trade oil are much higher now.

Mahmoud Abdou produces organic fair trade olive oil. He is member of the Zaytouna Cooperative Olive Farmers  and the Palestinian Farmers’ Union (PFU). The Cooperative offered 76 olive farmers a four year course about the quality of olive oil and how to improve this. Mr. Abdou is member of the board of PFU. This organisation lobbied for VAT-recovery. He learned more about running his farm as business and because he now produces olive oil of better quality and the selling prices are better, his income improved. He remarks that the occupation is a big problem for farmers. He thinks that agriculture can grow if the occupation ends and that export possibilities will improve.