Grown in Ancient Egypt, and cited in both the Bible and the Koran, dates have been a constant in the cuisine and history of the Middle East and North Africa. In Tunisia, they are one of the country's most valuable agricultural exports, with output primarily taken up by the much sought after Deglet Nour variety. However, at a time when the country's political future and identity seem to be in flux, both dates and agriculture in general could also represent a key tool in boosting Tunisia's economy and development.
The Tunisian revolution took place in 2011, with the overthrow of President Ben Ali after nearly twenty-five years of autocratic stagnation. Yet the last three years have also proven a difficult transition, with Tunisia experiencing a volatile path to democracy. Violence continues to affect Tunisian public life, while structural issues, including high unemployment and crumbling infrastructure, present considerable barriers to progress. Consequently agriculture – which represents one fifth of employment and one tenth of GDP, rising to 50% for poorer, rural areas – will be crucial in restoring the economy and raising living standards after years of neglect. Meeting this challenge will not be straightforward: aside from political uncertainties, smallholder producers in Tunisia face obstacles in terms of lack of irrigation, low yields, disease, seasonality of demand and limited financing.
As such, one Tunisian producer may represent a small example of a sustainable solution. Founded in 2002, Beni Ghreb is an exporter of dates based in Hazoua, a village next to the border with Algeria and 250km from the coast. Of the 800 families in Hazoua, Beni Ghreb works with 360, collecting and processing dates exclusively from a group of smallholder farmers called the Groupement de Développement de l'Agriculture Bio-Dynamique (GDABD). In the years leading up to Beni Ghreb's foundation, life for the village had become progressively more difficult; "From the 1960s onward, water access was increasingly degraded by big projects in the region, and the quality and volume of our output declined," says Beni Ghreb CEO, Sadok Saidi. With little help from a disinterested government, farmers saw their revenues plummet, while local youths left in droves, many of them attempting the infamous crossing to Lampedusa.
However, after 12 years of operating (including ten with Fairtrade certification), Beni Ghreb has used its position as a producer of high quality, organic dates to increase the price received by its farmers by 50%. Furthermore, they have been able to introduce a new irrigation system that provides water every three days – no mean feat with less than 50mm of rain per year. "With the irrigation system, I have been able to do in six months what I have been trying to achieve in 15 years," says one farmer, Mohammed Ben Bechi Saidi. Coupled with other projects ranging from compost stations to mosquito nets to protect the dates, Beni Ghreb has been able to boost local employment and production. Average date weights for the group now stand at 12g (compared to the standard weight of 8g), while volumes have grown from 189 MT in 2010/11 to 380 MT in 2012/13.
Nevertheless, Beni Ghreb still faces the challenge of coping with the seasonality of supply and demand. Although the two broadly correspond (the harvest season runs from October to December, with demand peaking at Christmas), the gap between paying farmers early (so as to help with the cost of harvesting) and payment from buyers upon delivery, can hamper producer organisations as they try to export. Financing is very limited, with the domestic banking sector still relatively underdeveloped. "Commercially it can be hard for us to find buyers to purchase the product straightaway. If we don't have the ability to pay farmers up front, and can't afford to stock it, they will go to middlemen elsewhere, even if that means they get a lower price in the long run," explains Sadok Saidi.
As a result, the role of impact investors can be crucial in this context. One such investor in Beni Ghreb, responsAbility Investments, has been working with them since 2012, and in the sustainable agri-business sector since 2003.
"The funding from responsAbility gave us the chance to buy from an additional 30 to 40 farmers at higher prices than they would have received elsewhere – this funding has brought hope for many of the region's farmers," says Sadok Saidi. In total the responsAbility Fair Trade Fund works with 80 organisations (with more than 800,000 members), financing $65.6m (£39.9m) in 37 countries in the developing world. The majority of this financing was similar to that provided to Beni Ghreb: short term financing to cover working capital requirements during the harvest season. As a result, investors like responsAbility can use funds from investors looking to achieve a sustainable return to provide a crucial service to rural areas across the developing world.
Looking forward, Beni Ghreb's name has already began to spread throughout the country: on 12 May, National Agricultural Day in Tunisia, Hazoua hosted the Minister of Agriculture, with another sixty visitors from major national and international institutions attending to hear how Beni Ghreb had helped to transform the local economy.
"The government is paying more and more attention to private initiatives like us – before the state consumed everything, and we were cast aside. Today, the state has started to understand the power of small enterprises, especially co-operative agricultural organisations like us," claims Sadok Saidi.
In terms of the outlook for Tunisia overall, the recent agreement on a new constitution, coupled with the formation of a caretaker government, has led many to hope that Tunisia will be able to achieve a successful transition to democratic government by 2014. As Sadok Saidi explains, "The revolution has created hope, even if mistakes have been made. Before we could not speak, we were only allowed to applaud. Now we have a national dialogue, now we are communicating."
Paul Hailey is a senior research analyst for responsAbility Investments AG.
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