🔗 Share this article

One Palestinian food brand has reported its British revenue jumped by half to £3.2m in this year, as shoppers increasingly purchase its premium oil in support with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories.

The brand, translating to "olive tree" in Arabic, is a community-focused business established to bolster the endurance of Palestinian families through ethical commerce.

Purchasing premium olive oil and sweet dates from the territory has offered consumers a concrete way to assist local farmers, as stated by the managing director.

"Shoppers could grasp it in their hand and say, I have done this, even if it’s a modest act," she commented. The sharp growth in sales showed "people wanting to create an impact with their purchasing power," she noted.

At this time of year, a promotional campaign by the ethical trade organization aims to increase awareness and purchases of products that bear the organization's certification.

The logo is a assurance that farmers get a fixed base rate, plus an extra amount called the ethical bonus, which is placed into a shared pool for workers and farmers to utilize as they deem appropriate. In 2024, British revenue of Fairtrade products such as brewed beans, tea and tropical fruit produced £28 million in bonus payments.

However, shoppers seeking the recognizable symbol will not find it on the brand's olive oil. This is because the security situation implies nobody is in a position to complete the inspections necessary for official approval.

"We haven’t been able to get ethically certified olive oil out of the region for nearly twelve months now," said the director. "Official inspectors pulled out at very short notice and lacking a transition."

In a announcement published on recently, the Fairtrade Foundation and wider ethical commerce network vowed to "speak out in unity with the people of the Gaza region and the West Bank whose prospects are being deliberately dismantled."

Eleanor Harrison, the organization's chief executive, stated that as a collective "we believe that every person has the entitlement to reside and labor in security and determine their own destiny."

She added: "Our movement advocate justice, solidarity, and the enablement of people to decide on their own paths. We are unable to stay quiet while the fundamentals of life are being destroyed."

The enterprise is still buying the "same" olive oil from small-scale farmers in the territories, and has optimism that a recently appointed local auditor will be established to certify the new harvest. The half-liter bottles sell for approximately £15.

The images of destruction in Gaza render it difficult to imagine farming activities. But cultivating olives is essential to most of rural Palestine, noted the spokesperson. "The terrain is scattered with ancient trees … nearly every household have some whether it’s 20 or many."

"The resilience of the tree, what it can withstand, is very much symbolic to Palestinians. It’s a metaphor for their resilience and hardiness through all these difficult times."

Although interest for Zaytoun items, which feature almonds and large grains, has been strong, keeping the show on the road has proven challenging.

Its goods ship from the neighboring port of Haifa, but the journey is lengthy. The vehicles must make detours to go through checkpoints, and the loads need to be arranged far less high than capacity to permit detection animals to leap across them.

What seemed like an "impossible situation" in 2004, when Zaytoun started as a grassroots project by a small team motivated by a visit to the region, has only deteriorated, the director explained.

"However we’ve observed the market interest in the UK match that increase … From last year to 2024 we grew by about 50% due to the British consumers wanting to express solidarity in a tangible manner."

She mentioned that at the outset people questioned whether the brand was a sustainable enterprise. "The products are really costly to buy, so there’s little earnings," she commented, noting that the "price points are very high in this market for consumers, so many believed they would not buy them."

"The venture was simply an act that then gained traction due to people embracing it. At no point did it seem like a project that had any kind of longevity."

"But two decades later, here we are."