Did you know
that when you visit a place that it gets even better when you learn about the
cultural values people in this place have? Forget about the breath-taking
scenery for a while. Talking to people about how they create
income to make a living is a real eye-opener and so much better than only
reading about it in the papers. Engage with the local community and learn about
their history. Visit locally owned bars, cafes, museums, and restaurants and empower
the community economically. And while you are their guest, they most often will
tell you all about the best places to visit, and soon you will know it all (if
not all, at least a lot more than before). So far all people I met were even
happy to tell me a little bit about the environmental and political issues they
face in their country.
You can’t
open a magazine, without someone telling you from the pages that you need to
use argan oil. Over the years more and more people go into raptures about argan
oil, you should have heard my Scottish
hairdresser in Melbourne soon
after it started to become popular outside of Morocco. It is apparently great
for your skin, for your hair, to put on salads, and as medicine ... I always had
this vision to find out what all this talk is about. And now that I went to
Morocco I eventually made my dream come true.
In Essaouira a vendor at the souk, who
sells scented mint, bundled into hundreds of bunches and stacked up the wall of
the hall at the vegetable market, tells me that I simply have to drive a bit
out of town (in my rental car) and I would find several producers where I can
simply stop to have a chat. He doesn’t provide any address, he just tells me to drive out of town. That
is exactly what I do and two of the
ones I find soon after
were so friendly to tell me about the argan tree, explain the production process,
and to even show me around their premises ….
It is a very warm day, the sky is blue, and there is not
much wind. After a very short drive on unpaved ground away from the main road
that connects Essaouira with Sidi Kaouki and as I park my car on the gravel I
am greeted by the big brown eyes of a very inquisitive baby donkey on spindly
legs with a thick fringe and long soft ears. I step out of the car, greet the
wrinkly gentleman, sitting in the shade on a wooden chair next to the green iron gate, and make my way to the property. There
is a friendly brown short-haired but a bit ragged dog, which is looking down on
me from the flat roof. Mr Dog barks twice, probably to tell his owners that
there is a visitor. A second later a guy opens the door, stretches out his hand
and asks me whether I am interested in argan oil. I am the only guest. I smile, I
nod and ask whether he might show me around. He smiles back, nods, and I can
see he is just as delighted as I am.
Argan forests are on the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme
We stand in the low lit building, and the guy tells me that today the argan forests are on the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Programme, that works, to establish a basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments.
The reserve is in the south-west of Morocco bordered by
the Atlas Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. I learn that the argan tree is in
need of conservation. The oil is produced from its nuts and because of the increased
worldwide demand (you know your cuticles, your hair, your wrinkles, and the
salad sauce), it plays an ever-growing economic role in Morocco. Not only that,
the trees also play a vital role in the protection of the environment, they can
only protect fertile land from becoming a desert area when the tree population
remains healthy. The UNESCO biosphere reserve ensures replanting of the trees
and supports initiatives that produce oil in the traditional way. Everybody is
happy about it. And only in spring there was a conference in Marrakech to
discuss what best to do in the future, and whether the use of renewable energy
might be a smart thing to do.
Stainless-steel argan oil press machines
While we talk the man guides me to the electric stainless-steel
argan oil press machine and explains how it works. Spick and span is best to
describe this place. The kernels of the nuts are pressed, and the extracted oil
gets filtered. The by-product, which looks like a thick beige-coloured nut
mousse, gets collected in big sacks and will later get fed to the goats. Goats
were an integral part of the whole process in the past. They climbed the thorny
argan trees, they ate the fruits, they digested the thick skins, the kernels
came out at their back end, and the results were collected. He tells me that
today the farmers don’t want the goats to destroy the precious trees, and I ask
the guy whether feeding them the nut mousse is a form of consolation. He smiles
at me, mildly. Anyway, silly jokes aside, great to see that nothing goes to
waste in this place. I get more intense looks from him, like he is waiting for
a big reaction when he says that they need 30 kg of nuts to produce one litre
of oil. A tree gets harvested once a year (whereby they only use the nuts that
fell down) and gives approximately 75 kg of nuts.
Union of Cooperatives of Women for the production and marketing of Argan oil
We go to a large room where ten Berber women sit against a
red wall in a half-moon circle on mats on the floor. They look up, only briefly
and smile. We shyly wave each other before they swiftly continue cracking the dried
nuts manually, with a big stone. They collect the kernels in a basket standing
next to them. Their ever repeating tasks surely come with all the non-pleasures
of assembly work, but creating products to sell on the national and
international market generates income for the women. The L’Union des
CoopĂ©ratives des Femmes pour la production et la commercialisation de l’huile
d’Argane (Union of Cooperatives of Women for the production and marketing of Argan oil)
the cooperatives work with, aims to improve the socio-economic conditions of the
rural woman in the western region of southern Morocco.
And at the end of our chat I am offered to try argan oil together
with a piece of white bread with a thick crust, it goes well together, and I have
to buy face oil and cooking oil to take home with me. Not because my host
wants me to buy it, and I feel I have to, but because I am so fascinated by all
this …. And now I am also one of these people who highly recommend argan oil.
Where to find argan oil cooperatives
Drive along the 2201 from Essaouira to Sidikouaki and
look for the signs that advertise argan oil cooperatives.
Would you like to read
more about Morocco?
From Berlin with love