InfoAnda - Fair Trade makes inroads among hemmed-in West Bank farmers

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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Asia Pacific World Fair Trade makes inroads among hemmed-in West Bank farmers AFP - Monday, October 26 Send IM Story Print A Palestinian worker packs bottles of olive oil in boxes at the Canaan Fair Trade company in the village of Burqin near the West Bank city of Jenin on October 17. In the stylish olive oil bottles on display in his West Bank showroom, Nasser Abufarha has found a way to pass on to socially conscious Western shoppers the costs exacted by the Israeli occupation. JENIN, West Bank (AFP) - – In the stylish olive oil bottles on display in his West Bank showroom, Nasser Abufarha has found a way to pass on to socially conscious Western shoppers the costs exacted by the Israeli occupation. As one of the West Bank's first certified Fair Trade exporters, his Canaan Fair Trade company has helped Palestinian farmers hemmed in by Israeli restrictions by adding a social premium to the cost of their olive oil. "The producer's story is integrated into the product," says Abufarha, who got the idea from the Fair Trade coffee sold on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in the United States, where he earned his PhD. "People are buying it because it's from Palestine, because it has this social effect on the ground. Plus it's good olive oil." The Fair Trade movement has traditionally aided small growers across the developing world by placing a social premium on coffee and other products that has allowed them to compete with larger producers. Abufarha believes the same principle can allow Palestinian farmers to thrive amid the Israeli restrictions in the occupied territories. Since he founded Canaan Fair Trade in 2004, the company has expanded to include a cooperative of more than 1,700 farmers in the northern West Bank, all of whom are paid more than the market price for their products. The cost is borne by socially conscious consumers in Europe, North America and Japan, and encourages the farmers to remain on their land and secure international Fair Trade and organic certification. "Fair Trade gives them a better market for their goods so that there can be an economic benefit to working the land, not leaving it to look for work in Israeli factories or construction sites," Abufarha says. The olive trees that line terraced hillsides across the West Bank are a major component of the local economy and a symbol of Palestinian nationhood. But many of the farmers who work with Canaan are kept from their trees by Israel's controversial separation barrier, which is intended to prevent attacks but has been mostly built on Palestinian land. Others face harassment from Jewish settlers, who in past years have disrupted the annual autumn olive-picking season by attacking farmers and burning down their trees. Under the rules of Fair Trade, all of those costs -- along with a profit margin and a social premium -- are incorporated into the price paid to farmers. A 375-ml bottle of Canaan olive oil sells for 16 dollars (11 euros) in North America, around four times the local West Bank price. The company also markets sun-dried tomatoes, almonds, honey and olive oil soap. "Fair Trade has always paid a higher price for production because it meets international specifications, which is good for prices and good for farmers," says Samer al-Ahmed, the head of the non-governmental Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee in Jenin. In the nearby village of Anin, where some of Canaan's products are grown, the farmers must every day pass through an iron gate in the thick, barbed wire fence separating the village from much of its olive groves. Israeli soldiers open the gate every morning from 6-7 and every afternoon from 3:30-4:30 during the harvest to allow local families to tend their groves, but access is more restricted during the remainder of the year. Muthir Yassin, 27, a farmer who works with Canaan, has seen his holdings dwindle because of the difficulty of maintaining the trees. "In 2002 I had 250 trees. Now I just have 40 or 50, and in another few years I might not have any," he says. The idea of fair trade has been slow to catch on. He and other farmers say Canaan gives them a higher price but also pays in installments over a period of several months. "I am going to sell to the local market because I can get paid directly," Yassin says. "I can't wait the entire year to make money." Abufarha explains that last year there was a delay in obtaining one of the company's many international certifications, forcing it to wait until late January to sign contracts with buyers and delay the payments to farmers. He insisted that all farmers would be paid on time for this year's harvest, and the Palestinian Farmers' Union representing some 1,350 area growers has strongly endorsed the fair trade concept. But the farmers in Anin fear that no outside initiative will prevent the creeping loss of their livelihood. Abdullah Zaarur, 52, a farmer with some 1,260 trees beyond the fence, worries not only about the Israeli restrictions, but this year's olive crop, which is expected to be extremely weak because of strong spring winds that blew away most of the blossoms. "I should be producing 70 tonnes of olive oil each season but this year I'll be lucky if I get two tonnes," he says. For Zaarur, the lucrative markets of Europe and Japan are worlds away -- and his olive trees on a hazy hillside beyond the fence might just as well be the same for much of the year. "I can see my trees, right there," he says. "But I can't go there." 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