In the arid mountains of southern Morocco, native ladies harvest argan oil, a pure product they’ve lengthy utilized in cooking however which hasbecome extremely prized by the worldwide magnificence trade as an anti-aging pores and skin therapy and restorative for hair.
Most argan oil is produced by native cooperatives of Amazigh-speaking Berber ladies across the cities of Agadir, Essaouira and Taroudant the place the argan tree, which bears small inexperienced fruit resembling an olive, is frequent.
For centuries the oil, among the many most costly on the earth, has been extracted by drying argan fruit within the solar, peeling and mashing the fruit then crushing and grinding the kernel with stones.
Amazigh ladies sit collectively as they crush argan nuts to extract the kernels, at Women’s Agricultural Cooperative Taitmatine, in Tiout, close to Taroudant, Morocco. (Source Reuters)
The oil was historically used as a flavouring and a savoury dip for bread. As an ingredient, it’s nonetheless frequent in Morocco and now additionally exported for meals.
Its use as a magnificence product has created a surge in demand for the oil by worldwide cosmetics firms, nonetheless. It additionally signifies that native teams are investing in additional interesting packaging. The oil now prices round $30-50 a litre domestically, however can promote on the worldwide market in smaller high-end bottles for as much as $250 a litre.
In the Tiout oasis close to Taroudant (600km south of Rabat), the Taitmatine cooperative employs 100 ladies to supply argan oil, providing them a wage, free childcare, medical insurance and literacy programs.
The cooperative, whose identify in Amazigh means “sisters”, was arrange in 2002.
Although new machines they use to assist course of the fruit have helped velocity up the work, the ladies nonetheless must take away the arduous shell of the kernels by hand by pounding it with a stone, earlier than the internal kernel might be pressed by a machine to extract the oil.
“It takes up to three days of grinding for every woman to get one litre of Argan oil,” stated Mina Ait Taleb, head of the Taitmatin cooperative.
“We work here but we also have fun and sing together,” stated Zahra Haqqi talking in a room the place dozens of ladies had been grinding outer argan kernels utilizing stones.Haqi stated the job had helped her earn a daily revenue.