Canaan Palestine

In 2003, Dr. Nasser Abufarha saw that the Israeli siege on Palestine had cut off market access for Palestinian olive farmers, threatening the olive crop as a whole in Palestine. In response, Nasser devised an infrastructure for farmers to produce olive oil under fair trade and organic standards, affording farmers access to the ethical trading market in the US and Europe. The vehicle of this mission was Canaan Palestine: a label under which Palestinians farmers could sell their products with pride. To start, Nasser set to work organizing farmers at the village level, sharing his ideas and passion for saving the olive tree—1,500 farmers showed interest in joining his organization; and in 2004, the Palestine Fair Trade Association (PFTA) was born. From that day forward, the PFTA served as the governing body that leads developments for the farming communities and sustains the fair trade and organic movement. These two components—PFTA and Canaan Palestine—became the main tools to realize Nasser's vision. The PFTA provides organization under fair trade and organic standards while Canaan creates partnership opportunities around the world for farmers by giving them an avenue to create and sell market-ready products. This opened doors that were not just closed, but previously unthinkable for Palestinian farmers, and the farming community in Palestine has been forever changed. The development of PFTA and Canaan Palestine created immense opportunities to cultivate community wellbeing; their rapid-fire growth gave way to projects and programs that exceeded the bounds of their original mission. Through PFTA and Canaan Palestine, we have been able to set forth stewardship and agriculture-based projects like Trees for Life, the Canaan Center for Organic Research and Extension (CORE), and our wheat revitalization program; community-based outreach like our scholarship program and womens' empowerment initiatives; exchange opportunities like Visit Palestine; and so much more over the last twenty years.