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Through our business, we will actively participate in social and environmental activities.

Our health is supported by supplying our bodies with nutrients through food. While participating in creating an environment where the food that nourishes us is grown, we feel that our role is important. One of those roles is providing support for the Targanine Project.

The beginnings of providing support for the Targanine Project 

There are two ethnic groups that live in Morocco; Arabs and indigenous Berbers. Home to the capital city of Rabat, the northern region of the country has a large Arab population and is developed economically. Conversely, the southern region has a large Berber population, and lags behind in terms of its economy, child education, and the status of women. The woman who changed this society was Professor Zoubida Charrouf of the Mohammed V University in Rabat.

In order to give social independence to Berber women and to solve the problem of desertification, Professor Charrouf focused her attention on argan oil, which has been traditionally used by the Berber people. She founded the Targanine Project to solve the social problems faced by Morocco.

The Targanine Project is a regional socio-economic model that established targanine production cooperatives with Berber women as its members. After we met Professor Charrouf, we decided to provide support for her Targanine Project.

Our journey thus far

The Targanine Project began it activities in 1996 as a cooperative consisting of 16 unmarried Berber women as its members. At that time, women generally did needlework in their homes, and there was much resistance to the idea of women working outside the home. This makes it easy to understand why this was the start of such a serious project. By 2000, LOHAS and the slow food movement had gathered momentum, and the Targanine Project’s activities were presented with the Slow Food Award by Italian NPO Slow Food Association in 2001. Sparked by this, the activities of the cooperatives gradually began to expand. Through the activities of the cooperatives, Berber women, who were the poorest and most oppressed population in Morocco due to regional and economic conditions, were able to gain economic and social independence. At the same time, activities have been conducted to improve literacy and vocational education for co-op members, and afforestation activities continue to promote the conservation and cultivation of argan trees. The project is also highly acclaimed as a fair trade commercial distribution model that fulfills criteria in environmental conservation, regional development, and the improvement of the status of women.

Message from Professor Charrouf

Zoubida Charrouf

  • Professor in the Faculty of Science of the Mohammed V University in Rabat

  • The world’s leading researcher on argan tree and the founder of the Targanine Project

  • In 2005, she was awarded “Trophée de la Solidarité (Trophy of the Solidarity)” by the king of Morocco

Argan trees have existed in southwestern part of Morocco since ancient times, which produce rare oil, that is, argan oil. The Targanine Project is an activity respecting local Berber people’s traditions. In the Project, Berber women gather in a form of cooperative and produce high quality edible oils and cosmetic oils by utilizing traditional and modern oil pressing techniques.

Selling Targanine’ argan oils brings the women of the association a sufficient income to live on and contributes to protecting argan forests from desertification.

The Targanine Project takes responsibility in its product quality, environmental conservation, providing fair income for women, and sustainable development through vocational trainings and literacy education.

Your participation to the Project through purchasing argan oil will lift all the local people out of poverty and enable to stop the spread of desertification which has been threatening Morocco.

For a thousand years, Argan oil has been used as Arabic traditional medicine for physical care, treatment of acne, chickenpox, dry skin, and wrinkle, and hair and scalp care. Most dermatologists in Morocco today use the oil for chickenpox treatment and wound healing. On the other hand, major pharmaceutical companies’ laboratories in Europe have advanced studies on its moisturizing and anti-wrinkle effects. It can be said that argan oil is one of the most superior natural anti-aging products.

Award being presented to Professor Charrouf

Professor Zoubida Charrouf’s activities are praised as she is presented with the award.

Support for the installation of new production equipment

A portion of our sales is given back to the project, to be used for installing new production equipment.

Production plant

The production plant has become more modern than was even imagined at the time the project was founded. 

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