Palestinian dates: we support ethical consumption!

Those who plant dates don't eat dates” is an ancient Arab saying, based on the fact that palm trees grow slowly and you have to wait many years before harvesting significant amounts of dates.

The deepest meaning of this saying is that planting date palms is not a choice for immediate profit, but a great act of responsibility to the territory-environment and to future generations, especially in arid and infertile territories. In fact, under date palms, a humid environment is created, protected from solar radiation and wind, and therefore from hyper-evaporation, in which vegetables and often fruit trees, especially citrus fruits, are cultivated, giving life to a three-level agro-forestry system, palm-citrus-vegetables, very rich in wild and even animal biodiversity, in areas usually dominated by the desert.



A little more waiting for Medjool BIO FAIR TRADE dates from Palestine!!!

The most consumed date varieties in Europe are: the Deglet Nour, small, opaque yellow and slightly fibrous, cultivated mainly in Algeria and Tunisia, and the Medjool variety, characterized by very large, soft and highly sugary fruits, with a dark skin with brilliant streaks, which is why it is extremely popular and of high commercial value.

This variety, considered to be native to present-day Morocco, has been cultivated since ancient times in many countries from North Africa to the Middle East and since the 1920s with success also in California, from where it was sent to Israel in the 70s. In Palestine, Medjool dates were introduced during the 80s in the Jordan Valley, but their trade has been almost monopolized by the United States and Israel for many years.

The economy of Palestine is under the control of Israel, which has illegally occupied its most fertile areas and in fact the major Israeli exporters produce up to 70% in the occupied colonies in the Jordan Valley (https://bdsitalia.org/index.php/campagne-footer/stop-agrexco/49-la-carmel-le-colonie-e-la-valle-del-giordano).

The control of agricultural resources mainly concerns Medjool date palms, which are cultivated in territories expropriated from Palestine, by Palestinian workers, often minors and in any case without protection and guarantees.

To take a stand against this dramatic socio-economic and humanitarian situation, El Tamiso decided not to buy Israeli brand Medjool dates and to boycott them, as is already the case with all Israeli productions, since the establishment of the Cooperative in 1984.

Since 2000, our Cooperative has been supporting cooperation projects with Palestinian farmers' organizations through various cooperation actors, in particular with the NGO ACS, Cooperation and Solidarity Association.

ACS has been present in Palestine since 2000 and in particular it has worked in synergy with the PARC (Palestinian Agriculture Support Committee - www.pal-arc.org) for the establishment of organic, or low-impact, vegetables for self-consumption and dates for export. He also participated in the establishment of COAP (Company of Organic Agriculture in Palestine - www.coap.org.ps), the only Palestinian organic certification body.

With great satisfaction we announce that these projects have led to the organic certification of the PARC's Medjool dates and that, from next year's harvest in November 2019, Palestinian Medjool dates will finally be imported into Europe and Italy and it will therefore be possible to offer a FAIR TRADE and ORGANIC alternative to all those who want to support, also through ethical consumption, the Palestinian cause and more generally the processes of social bio-agriculture!