TORONTO - Olive oil from some of the oldest groves in the world is garnering interest in Canada.

For more than 2,000 years, Palestinian farmers have grown olives, producing an aromatic organic oil with a flavour evocative of fresh fruit. Five years ago, through the efforts of Toronto businessman Robert Massoud, the non-profit organization Zatoun was founded to import fair-trade olive oil from Palestine.

Zatoun, which means olive, is an organization in which all proceeds are used directly to benefit Palestinian farmers and their families living in the occupied territories.

And although the interest in purchasing the olive oil is growing in this country, “we are a little bit under the radar because we are a grassroots organization,” he says.

Massoud was born in Jerusalem but came to Canada with his family as a child. He has travelled to Palestine to view and meet farmers during the olive harvest which takes place each November to December.

“This particular olive oil is basically small-batch farmer-grown oil as opposed to industrial olive oil from other countries,” he explains.

And unlike the large producers, the Palestinian oil is collected from individual farmers and brought back to be tested and bottled.

“Because we are small-batch, when we put in an order it is really collected from neighbouring farms and it’s not mixed with literally hundreds of oils coming in from other regions as it is in Italy,” says Massoud.

Anne Meneley, an anthropology professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., has become somewhat of an activist for the Palestinian olive oil.

She had spent time in the Middle East working on other projects, but after Sept. 11, 2001, she felt a sense of obligation to teach about that region which had captured her interest.

What she discovered was that while olive oil is important to Palestine’s economy, it remains difficult to export “because there is no airport or sea port and the Palestinians don’t control their own highways.”

Part of Meneley’s research project centres around the circulation of Palestinian olive oil “because it is extremely sensitive to heat, light and air.”

The last time she was in the region she interviewed people who were trying to move the oil out for export.

Since the closure of the border, Israel has tightened up permits so Palestinian farmers have to transfer oil from truck to truck, she says. They also need someone with Jerusalem identification to bring it to the port of Haifa, where Israeli firms pack it for shipping.

“Even then, depending on how the product is labelled, it may be held up on the docks and this is problematic for olive oil marketers because olive oil is very sensitive to heat, light and air,” says Meneley, who this week received a research grant of $60,912 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to continue her work into the context of the production, consumption and circulation of Palestinian olive oil.

Massoud says that once Canadians sample this olive oil, they won’t balk at spending up to $18 to $20 for a litre bottle.

Meneley says that she now buys it by the case and gives a bottle to her dinner hosts instead of wine.

“From our experience we have doubled almost every order,” says Massoud, “and when people buy it they do so for solidarity because they believe in fair trade and supporting farmers, but they come back for more because they are hooked.”

To purchase Palestinian olive oil in Canada, visit www.zatoun.com or www.tenthousandvillages.ca.

Judy Creighton welcomes letters at 9 Kinnell St., Hamilton, Ont. L8R 2J8, but cannot promise to answer all correspondence personally. She can also be reached by email at jcreighton(at)golden.net.

Here are some facts about Palestinian olive oil:

-The oil comes from the groves in the northern West Bank region of Palestine.

-Importer Holy Land Olive Oil buys the oil from farmer co-operatives directly or through partner organizations such as the Palestinian Agriculture Relief Committee (PARC), a not-for-profit institution dedicated to helping farmers.

-The olive oil is organic as Palestinian farmers do not use pesticides or herbicides on olive trees.

-Holy Land Olive oil pays the co-ops a price that matches or exceeds the price set by PARC.

-The olive oil has a robust aroma and a flavour evocative of fresh fruit.

Source: Holy Land Olive Oil.