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Supporting fair trade producers – beyond trade

Things have been busy recently at Olive Co-operative with new projects in partnership with Palestinian organisations we work with.

The most significant work has been with Zaytoun, the UK importers of fairly traded, pesticide-free Palestinian olive oil, and the Palestinian Fair Trade Association, based in Jenin in the north of the West Bank (www.zaytoun.org and www.palestinefairtrade.org). In association with these groups, Olive has launched Trees for Life, an initiative which allows people in the UK and elsewhere to sponsor the planting of young olive trees in Palestine.

Olive trees are the mainstays of the Palestinian rural economy. They supply oil (which is then used for soap and cosmetics as well as cooking and eating), olives and wood, which is sustainably harvested for the traditional craft of wood carving. As well as their practical use, olive trees are symbolically important to Palestinians, representing the continuity of their nation and culture and their link to the land.

Because of their importance, olive trees have also become a major part of the conflict in Palestine. The Applied Research Institute Jerusalem, a rural research NGO, estimates that since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, half a million olive trees have been destroyed. They are cut down or bulldozed by the Israeli army or settlers in the course of building settlements, settler roads and the Separation Wall. They are also often destroyed on the basis of ‘security,’ with areas cleared for wide areas around settlements on the grounds that then Palestinian militants cannot use them for cover in attacks. Many of the trees thus destroyed are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Palestinian farmers say that certain patterns of planting indicate that groves were laid out in Roman times. Some of the oldest and most splendid trees from bulldozed groves can be found at the heart of Israeli settlements, where they are transplanted into the centre of roundabouts or in municipal gardens.

The Trees for Life project aims to try and replace some of these trees, offering farmers new stock with which to replenish their livelihoods. All the farmers who benefit from the scheme are also members of fair trade groups across the region, ensuring that they will also benefit from fair prices when they start to harvest from their trees. Although sponsorship is not, of course, strictly a fair trade activity, we wanted to be involved in this project because we felt that it represented a way of building long-term sustainable supplies of an important product that we sell, and in supporting farmers we hope to make their activities economically viable in the long term despite the threats they face. The sponsorship ‘product’ – five trees for £20 – has also proved very popular, with the symbolism of olive trees striking a particular note with people looking for gifts for new births, christenings and weddings. See www.olivecoop.com/catalog for more information.

The second initiative we’ve been working with is Holy Land Handicrafts (www.holyland-handicraft.org), a co-operative of wood carvers and other traditional artisans. Based in Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, Holy Land Handicrafts was the first organisation in the Middle East to be approved by IFAT, the International Fair Trade Association. It has supplied with its beautiful hand-carved olive wood items for several years, and with the help of Olive founder Jo Bird has been supported by Shared Interest, an organisation which exists to help finance fair trade projects and producers. As well as selling the products of co-operative members, it also markets embroidery and gift items made by local women’s groups and an employment project for disabled adults.

Holy Land Handicrafts came to Olive for help in producing marketing materials for its shop in Beit Sahour, at the popular tourist destination of Shepherds Fields, where angels are believed to have announced Christ’s birth to shepherds and their flocks. Although the more settled situation in the West Bank has seen a rise in the number of coaches bringing visitors to the workshop and outlet, Holy Land Handicrafts were having to pay out substantial amounts in commission to tour organisers, coach drivers and guides in order to persuade them to come to this particular shop. Olive’s job, as first-language speakers of English, was to produce a newsletter and publicity materials for Holy Land, aimed at persuading tour guides that the fair trade credentials of the shop, as well as conventional factors like quality and price, were an important reason to visit them.

It remains to see whether targeting guides and tour companies with such information will be successful. But the project does illustrate the important point that there are many ways that fair trade retailers like Olive Co-operative can help and support the people we buy from, and hopefully increase the sustainability and positive impacts of their work.