We have been supporting a women's cooperative from the Arganeraie region since 2004, enabling the Berber tribe to keep the entire value chain in their own hands, from harvesting to processing. This means that the women are independent of factory owners and benefit from the entire local value chain. In our cooperative, the production of argan oil is traditionally the exclusive work of the women of the Berber tribe, who use it to supplement their income. The cooperative is located in the heart of the Arganeraie, an area of around 8000 square kilometers, which has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1998. Only in this area do the gnarled argan trees still grow today.

The cooperative is dedicated to traditional production methods and adheres to the UNESCO guidelines for the biosphere reserve. This traditional method of production is valued and maintained by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. In practice, this means that the protected argan trees remain untouched. Only free-range goats are allowed to climb the trees. Only the fruit that has fallen naturally to the ground is harvested, without shaking the trees or picking the fruit directly from the tree.

After the fruit has dried for weeks, the flesh is removed by hand. This traditional process is more resource-efficient than machine production, which produces over 30% waste and helps to secure valuable jobs in rural areas. The seeds are then carefully sorted by hand and gently cold-pressed.

After pressing, the argan oil undergoes a special treatment in which it is filtered several times using a particularly fine filter. This results in a high-quality argan oil and provides work and income for over 200 women in the cooperative. In addition to marketing the argan oil, we support the cooperative with specialist knowledge. Our agricultural engineers regularly advise on all aspects of argan oil production.

The production method of our argan oil from the women's cooperative is in stark contrast to industrial production. The latter mixes fruit from different sources, sometimes uses vibrating machines during harvesting despite legal prohibitions and processes the fruit in factories. This leads to the loss of important sources of income for Berber families and often forces them to leave their traditional lands and move to cities to find work. To counteract this, the government encouraged the establishment of cooperatives. However, many of these cooperatives are now dependent on factories and therefore lose a large part of their added value, as they only deliver their harvest there.