Palestinian Olive Oil and Dates
A Miracle of the Middle East: Equal Exchange Palestinian Olive Oil from PARC
Your purchase of this organic, cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil helps small-scale Palestinian farmers who are challenged with a range of issues such as long-term drought due to climate change and limited markets for selling products. West Bank Palestinians have had increasingly fewer economic opportunities due to the Israeli occupation and the effects of the pandemic.
The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), our olive oil partner, is the a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable economic development with 41 farmer cooperatives in the West Bank. Through the co-ops, farmers have been able to lower the cost of pressing their olives and storing, bottling, and shipping the oil; they also share best practices for pruning and plowing. PARC assists all of these co-ops by offering agricultural technical training.
PARC also helps to supply co-ops with water infrastructure, new seedlings, and processing and storage facilities. The organization provides a range of social services for women, children and families, and has delivered thousands of food packages to farmers during the pandemic. Recently PARC provided hundreds of food relief packages to people displaced in Gaza due to the bombing in May of 2021. Equal Exchange contributed to this campaign.
Enjoy the rich flavor of the PARC peppery, organic, cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil made from Nabali olives. Your purchase of Equal Exchange olive oil and medjool dates is a positive step in helping West Bank Palestinian farmers to make a living and provide for their families.
“This olive oil is delicious! it has a great, rich flavor raw for use in vinaigrettes or dipping, and works great for cooking. This is a phenomenal cause and I love the fact that I can support something I believe in and get a great product at the same time.”
From the West Bank to your Table
The Palestinian people have depended on olive trees to survive under many challenging conditions. The trees are passed down through generations of Palestinian families and help to provide nutrition and a measure of economic security.
This high quality, delicious organic olive oil can be used cold on salads or for cooking and even baking.
Our trading partner, the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC), is a nonprofit organization which provides technical assistance and support for West Bank and Gaza producers. PARC bottles the olive oil at its headquarters in Ramallah.
Each year PARC exports the oil from the fall olive harvest through Israeli ports to the U.S. The process of transporting the oil through several checkpoints is difficult and costly.
Olive Oil Resources
Learn from Mohammed Hmidat, Quality Control Engineer, PARC
Olive Oil from PARC
Culture of Olive Oil
Olive Oil Tasting
An Interfaith Palestinian Olive Oil Project: 10 Years of Solidarity
Watch this video about an ecumenical faith-based olive oil project that was started by Jim Harb, in Knoxville Tennessee, over 10 years ago. The "Olive Branch Olive Oil" project actively encourages congregations and community members in the Southeast to sell and distribute organic extra virgin Palestinian olive oil from the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee (PARC) sold by Equal Exchange. The tasty and flavorful oil has developed an enthusiastic following among congregants who offer their thoughts on the video. Sales help to economically sustain West Bank olive oil farmers and their families.
Articles and Downloads
Medjool Dates
These dates come from small farmers in the Jordan Valley and are processed in a PARC date packaging house, where they are inspected for quality, cleaned, sorted, graded and packaged.
This cooperative was established in early 2000. Water shortages in the area forced farmers to grow crops that could use less water. Medjool dates not only require less water but can grow using the slightly salty water that sits under the reservoirs of fresh water.
Date cooperative membership: 12 farmers
Recipes
From Rob Everts, former Equal Exchange Co-Executive Director