Argan oil production from cooperatives

The first Argan Oil production cooperative was born in T’mnar in 1998 managed entirely by women. Since then T’mnar has become the real capital of the industry of this natural oil. And not only! The plan has formed more and more cooperatives until a network consisting of women rural Morocco employed and valued in such organizations.

But what is the need to create these specialized cooperatives? The natives of the rural areas of Morocco have gradually become increasingly aware of importance of the tree of Argan ( Argania Spinosa ) and the consequences of deforestation. Many government projects were created to encourage community projects focused on
protection of forests of such endemic trees in Morocco.

This network of cooperatives is essential for families in this area of Morocco because working with them, full-time or partially, women in the various villages can afford education for children and medical care, as well as adult education programs. In this way working to the production of this special oil becomes a real rescue anchor for many populations in the area.

Women working at Moroccan cooperatives have one knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation, and that allows them to harvest the fruits of the tree of Argan in a sustainable way , contributing to a sustainable development project.
This is what does not happen in the great Argan oil industry that for years has been trying to modernize the extraction of this precious nectar. The industries used in the production of Argan oil with automatic processing produce much greater quantities than those of the cooperatives working manually. Also some cooperatives have adopted the new methods of mechanical extraction of oil, but the vast majority has continued to use the oldest and most traditional manual method since from this methodology you actually get a better quality of organic Argan oil.

Despite some initial difficulties in competition with large-scale markets, argan oil production of cooperatives is changing the economy and consequently the life of a large part of the population (about 3 million people) in all Argan oil production areas.
They began to see the potential of foreign markets and exploit the support provided by the Mohammed VI Foundation for the research and production of Argan oil and the technical support offered by some international organizations for the marketing of their products.

This will help cooperatives to ensure local and international markets against the terrible propaganda of the cosmetic industry and the low quality fakes that are flooding many of these markets.
In addition to the “new” genetically modified Argan trees, one of the greatest dangers that these cooperatives are facing comes from what is called “modernization” in a mixed way, which has as its
the modification of the ancient, fundamental and complex techniques of extraction and processing and influences the quality of the final product.