One Middle Eastern food enterprise has reported its British revenue jumped by half to £3.2m in 2024, as buyers increasingly choose its olive oil in support with communities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The brand, translating to "olive" in the Arabic language, is a social enterprise founded to strengthen the endurance of Palestinian families through ethical commerce.
Purchasing premium olive oil and medjool dates from the territory has given consumers a concrete method to assist Palestinians, as stated by the managing director.
"Shoppers could hold it in their hands and say, I have achieved this, even if it’s a modest gesture," she commented. The sharp sales increase showed "people wanting to create an impact with their spending choices," she noted.
At this time of year, a promotional campaign by the Fairtrade Foundation aims to increase awareness and purchases of products that bear the charity’s ethical stamp.
The mark is a assurance that farmers get a set base rate, along with an extra amount called the Fairtrade premium, which is placed into a shared pool for laborers and growers to utilize as they see fit. In 2024, British sales of ethically certified products such as brewed beans, tea and tropical fruit generated £28m in premiums.
Nonetheless, consumers looking for the recognizable symbol will not find it on the brand's product. This is due to the security situation implies nobody is able to finalize the checks required for official approval.
"We haven’t been able to get Fairtrade organic certified olive oil out of Palestine for nearly twelve months now," said the leader. "The certifier withdrew at very short notice and without a handover."
In a statement released on Thursday, the ethical trade body and broader fair trade movement pledged to "raise our voices in unity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank whose futures are being deliberately dismantled."
The chief executive, the Fairtrade Foundation's chief executive, stated that as a collective "our group hold that every person has the entitlement to live and work in security and shape their own future."
She added: "We stand for justice, solidarity, and the enablement of individuals to choose on their own futures. We cannot stay quiet while the fundamentals of life are being devastated."
The enterprise is continuing purchasing the "identical" olive oil from local growers in the territories, and has high hopes that a new regional inspector will be in place to certify the upcoming crop. The half-liter bottles are priced at approximately fifteen pounds.
The pictures of destruction in Gaza render it difficult to conceive of farming activities. But olive farming is essential to the majority of rural Palestine, said the director. "The landscape is scattered with ancient trees … most families have some whether it’s a few or many."
"The resilience of the tree, what it can endure, is highly representative to the people. It’s a symbol for their resilience and hardiness through all these challenging periods."
Although demand for Zaytoun items, which include nuts and giant couscous, has been robust, maintaining operations has not been easy.
Its products ship from the Israeli port of the city, but the journey is protracted. The trucks must make detours to go through checkpoints, and the pallets need to be stacked far lower than capacity to allow detection animals to leap across them.
What seemed like an "impossible situation" in 2004, when the initiative started as a grassroots initiative by a small team inspired by a visit to the region, has only got worse, the director explained.
"However we’ve seen the market interest in the UK correspond to that escalation … From last year to 2024 we expanded by about half due to the British consumers wanting to show support in a tangible manner."
She mentioned that at the beginning observers questioned whether the brand was a viable business. "The products are really costly to purchase, so there’s little earnings," she commented, adding that the "costs are really elevated in this market for consumers, so many believed they would not buy them."
"It was simply an act that then gained traction thanks to the public responding to it. At no point did it seem like a project that had any staying power."
"Yet 21 years later, we persist."
