Helping Fuel a Sustainable Business in Oil

November 4, 2012 / 2 Comments

Women at work at the Assous Argan Oil Cooperative

The smaller the world gets, the harder it it is to discover something truly unique. So I was excited when on a recent trip to Morocco with Access Trips, I was able to visit the Assous Argan Oil Cooperative about 40 miles east of the coastal city of Essaouira.

Previously unknown to me, I learned the Argan tree grows in only a few places in the world and only produces a nut here in Morocco.  The tree drops its fruit in the waning months of summer after which it is roasted and pressed and turned into some really delicious oil. Did I say delicious? I meant super-delicious, scrumptious, yummy.

That would have been enough for me, but there’s more to the story.

For generations, the women in this west central area of Morocco have been harvesting the argan nuts and producing the oil, a not-so-easy production requiring time and patience. It wasn’t until about ten years ago, however that they began to organize in cooperatives, pooling their resources and making shopper-friendly, tourist-ready products.

Karima Barniche is having fun taking me through the cooperative

On my recent visit, the young and lovely, Karima Barniche, explained how nuts are turned into oil by leading me past a row of women seated along the wall of the cooperative’s center salon. They were cracking and grinding the nuts and making a gummy black Play Doh-like wad. This goop wasn’t pretty but it smelled sensational! The women squeeze this lump and oil comes out. It takes a lot of nuts and even more muscle get a bottle full.

Grinding the nut into paste.

In the showroom, a selection of oils, honeys, cosmetics and lotions are artfully displayed while English -speaking assistants offer shopping advice. On a table in the center of the room there are chunks of fresh bread for dipping into bowls of samples.

It is sweet when people pull together to make better and easier the process of selling a local specialty. But there’s a challenge on the horizon.

A worker shows me the argan nut before cracking it.

While the ladies crack nuts one at a time and grind them using nothing more than the power in their two arms, new mechanized factories are beginning to churn out argan oil. Whether this threatens the livelihood of the low-tech labor force or whether it is hastening the process of making argan oil into the next hot thing, which will in turn employ more people, I can’t say.

Argan nuts drying in the sun

But one thing I really like about travel is the way I can vote with my pocket book, supporting quality products and community enterprise in a real, tangible and okay, edible way.

 

Categories: Africa, Go How Know How, Music, Food, Art and Culture, Photos, Travel by Land


2 responses to “Helping Fuel a Sustainable Business in Oil”

  1. Dear Sir/Madam,
    Thank you , i got your website in linkedin for argan oil from Morocco it is good .

    I am very interest for travel to see the trees in Morocco .
    Regards
    M’Barek

  2. Andrea lee says:

    The hair care product called Moroccan Oil is popular and expensive. Too bad the women who make this don’t have the marketing geniuses behind them or they’d get rich fast. Perhaps they need a website and direct order capability… It’s a great story and people might respond if they could buy from the source instead of the salons.

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