Argan Women Cooperatives – New opportunities for Moroccan women
Moroccan women have long used argan oil as their beauty secret—and now it’s spreading in the world. Argan oil is extracted from argan tree or Argania Spinosa. Argan tree once only grown in Morocco as the origin. Nowadays there are a lot of beauty products have argan oil as the main ingredients. In Morocco, argan oil is known to be women cooperatives. Because of its usefulness, argan oil is called as the ‘liquid gold’ from Morocco. Researches also conducted and it is proven that the quality of argan oil is real.
Contained rich natural vitamin E and alpha tocopherol, argan oil is really great for women’s hair, skin, and anti-aging process. Another formula contained in argan oil is linoleate acid, to give anti-aging effect and antioxidant. Tocopherol in argan oil is even twice higher than in olive oil. Vitamin A and omega 9 unsaturated fatty acid can also help in maintaining skin’s health.
Argan Women Cooperatives
Resulted from cold pressed to produce oil, 100% pure argan oil has a distinctive aroma of nuts. Pure argan oil is hard to get and need a lot of time for the processing, no wonder the price is quite expensive. According to UNESCO, there are not many companies who can produce argan oil from argan trees in Morocco. The statement was made in 1998 because UNESCO realized the limited of argan trees. Argan forest are now pretected as biosphere reserve due to its rareness. To bear its fruit, an argan tree needs around 10 to 14 years, that’s why they are limited. Argan women cooperative works not only to fulfill their financial condition and provide other women in the world with beauty products. They work with environment to protect argan forests and the safety of women’s job.
There are multiple argan women cooperatives run by Moroccan women. One of the biggest cooperative to produce pure argan oil is Argan Coop as argan women cooperative—that was formed in 2005. At first that argan women cooperative established by only some women but now they have 250 members with average production more than 2,000 liters of oil.
Argan women cooperatives can be established with the support of government. Those cooperatives set up by government to give the women income and wage with decent working condition in educated environment. As those cooperatives are authorized by government, they work with the Normacert certification, so the customers can be sure that their argan oil is originally from argan trees grow in argan conservatism region. The certification is a guarantee for customers that the argan oil is produced purely under the Moroccan Department of Agricultural Standard.
The existence of the cooperative changed the life of those women along with their families. Because of the high demand of argan oil, this cooperative is developing well. It really brings bless for those women, since before joining the cooperative they can only do lower class job such as cleaning service. There are some argan oil offered in the market with cheaper price compared to argan oil imported from Marocco. By buying the pure argan oil, you will not only get the best quality of argan oil but also contribute to the life of this argan women cooperative.