Preserving the Old, Cultivating the New

The world's first fair trade olive oil is produced in Palestine using traditional harvesting methods but modern processing techniques EMPOWERING marginalised Palestinian rural communities caught in conflict so they can sustain their livelihoods and culture, a small enterprise sells olive oil and other delicacies produced by hundreds of small farmers and their extended families across the West Bank. The process has vastly improved the lives of thousands of Palestinian farmers. Canaan Fair Trade sells olive oil and other agricultural products grown by over 1,700 small farmers organised in informal cooperatives and represented by the Palestine Fair Trade Association. PFTA is a Palestinian national union of fair trade producing cooperatives, processors, and exporters. The association was founded in 2004 and is based in the city of Jenin in the Northern West Bank. The company employs the fair trade concept and has built direct working relationships with these communities in Jenin by paying sustainable prices for their agricultural products to ensure fair wages for labour along the supply chain. The Fairtrade movement is primarily focused on benefiting producers in developing nations, where farmers and craftspeople have historically been subject to exploitation as the result of trading practices focused on creating profits in the developed world. Critics of the fair trade say the system sets up artificially high pricing and obstructs the free market. Whilst fair trade goods tends to cost more, consumers who support free trade goods believe that the benefits, such as more equitable wages, safer working conditions, sustainable community development and practices, and child-free labour, are worth the extra expense. The Fairtrade Certification Mark is an independent guarantee from Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) that products with the Fairtrade label have been certified in accordance with international Fairtrade Standards. Products with this Fairtrade logo guarantee that they have been produced and processed according to the highest international standards of food safety and health and, far more significantly for many small growers worldwide, the highest social, labour and environmental standards. Nasser Abufarha founded PFTA and in 2004 established Canaan Fair Trade, which just five years later is the largest exporter of certified fair trade and organic Palestinian olive oil to America and Europe. Operating in Jenin is not without challenges, says the Canaan director. "Many of our co-ops are in the 'seam' zones, where farmers continue to face severe barriers in carrying out their normal dayto- day agricultural activities caused mainly through the Israeli fence and the restrictions on movement, exacerbating levels of deprivation and marginalisation,' Dr Abufarha explains. Dr Abufarha, a Palestinian-American who grew up in a farming community outside Jenin, first encountered the concept of fair trade in coffee shops whilst pursuing his doctorate in the United States. He set up PFTA in 2003 whilst conducting research in Palestine for his dissertation. It was the height of the second intifada, and lacking investors who saw no reason to invest in wartorn Jenin and pay fair trade prices for olive oil, Abufarha used his own savings to kick-start the association. Canaan was set up as an exporting trade firm to buy products from co-operativemembers of PFTA. Creating Opportunities For generations, the farms around Jenin have grown the most delicately flavourful olives, almonds, tomatoes and other treasures of the earth. All are made from native plants, picked and processed in the naturally organic Palestinian traditional way for generations. To create opportunity for farmers and communities, Canaan Fair Trade purchases the co-operative's harvest and products, and then suppliesMax 90 Premium SE