Fair Trade and the need for investment into capacity building
heather on July 14th, 2005Zaytoun is in the process of bringing a container of oil to the UK from a new supplier, The Palestine Fair Trade Association. Below is an email regarding this.
‘As for the current shipment we had booked space on vessel leaving on July 17. But I recieved news yesterday that may lead us to cancel and put off for a week. One of the oil containers we set aside for your order increased in acidity to 0.90 We decided to empty what we bottled
from it and not bottle it. So we are contact with other farmers on the waiting list to collect a replacement for this tank. The tank is about 1500 litres. Mahmoud is currently in the field woring on gathering the replacements. It should not be long. I’ll keep you posted.
This is an example where we encounter unexpected cost with fair trade. For example we bought this oil from the farmers for 15 NIS. We had a delay in the order, then change in acidity and we cannot use the oil. We intend to sell it in the local market with the average price of 8 to 9 NIS. For 1500 liter it is quite a loss. But that is the nature of doing business and one of the details that the average consumer doe not necessarily account for. What we put in our bottles is only
premium Natural Extra Virgin. There a lot of Extra Virgin from Italy that are processed. Refined oil where acidity is extracted. The body richness and flavor of the greenish, natural EV we produce is not the same in these oils. This incident also stress to us that we do need to address the strorage issue soon. I started researching this in order to be ready for this up-coming harvest.’ (Investment is needed in stainless steel storage containers so that the farmers can store the oil in a way which keeps the integrity of the oil)
