Zaytoun CIC is a UK-based social enterprise that creates economic opportunity for Palestinian communities through fair trade. Their hard work over the past decade has delivered growing sales and significant impact while enabling their customers to sustainably support Palestinian communities.
At the recent Social Enterprise Awards, Zaytoun received the top prize in the international impact category, which was sponsored by the British Council. Here, we speak to co-founder Cathi Pawson.
What are your principal business activities?
Zaytoun CIC is a social enterprise importing and selling fairly traded Palestinian produce. We source high quality products from farmer co-operatives, and support them to achieve Fairtrade and organic certification. Our long-term relationship with producers means that we work with them on areas such as packaging and quality control standards. This assists them to maintain and grow a sustainable export market not just here in the UK, but globally.
Our top sources of revenue are the sale of Palestinian olive oil and Medjoul dates, with other products close behind. We also receive small grant funding from various sources to help us develop reliable, ethical supply chains.
How’s business?
Business is going well, with a healthy annual profit that allows us to invest back into the business so we can grow sales further in the UK.
Our biggest customers are our volunteer distributors who account for 40% of our sales. Closely following are our wholesale customers – delivering Zaytoun products to delicatessens, wholefood and fair trade shops. Finally we sell direct to a number of shops – national outlets such as Oxfam and Planet Organic as well as countless independent stores.
What’s your social mission?
Zaytoun is set up as a Community Interest Company (CIC) with an asset lock to ensure that we work for the benefit of the producers and customers we serve. Simply put, our mission is to support resilience of Palestinian farming families through sales of their artisan produce. Trade with us contributes towards sustainable living for farming families, and a way to share their stories – important for communities otherwise isolated by the occupation.
Trees for Life is an olive and almond tree planting project run by the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA), based in Jenin. In 2014 our customers sponsored the planting of 6000 new saplings through this scheme. The PFTA distribute saplings to young farmers, women farmers and farmers who have recently cultivated lands that have been confiscated by the Israeli military.
45% of our purchases are certified Fairtrade and organic. In 2014 Fairtrade premiums were spent by producing communities on rehabilitation of village schools, buying new tools for the cooperatives, new classrooms and equipping community halls with furniture.
Mohammad Irsheid, a Fairtrade almond and olive producer told us: “I stopped worrying about searching for local traders that would take my olive oil with conditions and at low prices. Now it all goes to one buyer and we get paid during the harvest instead of waiting months to sell all our produce. We are now our own masters… In short, Fairtrade made farming viable for us as Palestinian farmers.”
It’s not only producers who benefit – time and again our customers let us know how much they value not only being able to support Palestinian families, but also the personal link they make to the producers.
We have found that more people will buy Zaytoun products whenever Palestinian communities are under attack – it’s a very tangible way to support them.
You were founded in 2004. What have been the keys to your longevity and success?
Without a doubt we owe our longevity and success to the loyalty, energy and passion of our customers. From the very beginning they placed their trust in us, funding the first shipments and later making loans and investments in the company. Through good times and bad many of them have been with us all the way, and continue to actively engage with us, hosting events to sell our products, inviting producers to their communities, and travelling to Palestine with us.
What is the biggest challenge you face?
The ongoing challenge is sourcing from a country which suffers from low investment, restriction of key imports for industry, and frequent closure of access points both throughout the country and out towards international ports.
The heavy restrictions imposed on Palestinians and the movement of people and goods make the products more expensive to buy, and this is reflected in the UK high street price. However, the excellent quality of the products means that the market is sustainable, with many people making repeat purchases.
How would you like Zaytoun to evolve in the next five years?
Success for us is steady, sustainable growth. We would love to triple sales by 2020, and add at least five more products to our range, but working with producers from an occupied country means we work with the constraints they have – so keeping our growth solid and sustainable is key.
For producers, this means more income and a higher profile for their products, as well as a way to tell their story via those products to more people.
Beyond that, we’d like to do more work with our supply chains on quality control, new product innovation and packaging.
Finally, we would like to grow as a company, with more staff to support core UK operations as we expand our work with Palestinian supply chains.
To learn more about Zaytoun and explore their products, click here.
Cathi Pawson and three friends set up Zaytoun in 2004 after they volunteered with human rights organisations in Palestine and saw that olive farmers had nowhere to sell their oil at a fair price. Since then the initiative has become a Community Interest Company with seven staff, supporting thousands of farming families in Palestine. Cathi remains a director and works part-time for Zaytoun as communications officer.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by the British Council, sponsor of the international social enterprise hub
