SINDYANNA OF GALILEE – OXFAM-WERELDWINKELS

Upgrading Food Quality Control Procedures

Sindyanna of Galilee

Start: 1996

Field of action: Palestinian Territories

Members: Arab population in the region of Galilee

Sindyanna was started up by a group of volunteers as a fair trade organization within the Haninotz Publishing House (HPH). This NGO was founded by a group of Jewish and Arabian human rights activists in 1986 to bridge the gap between the two communities.

Sindyanna combines commercial activity and community work. In Sindyanna, you will find unique cooperation between Arabs and Jews, striving to strengthen the economy of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories. The organization employs nine women and 25 volunteers, but indirectly, a further 150-200 people are economically partly dependent on the company.

Sindyanna is helping to revive and develop the Arabian olive growing industry in the Israeli region of Galilee and in the Gaza West Bank. Although olives have been an economic pillar for many centuries in West Galilee, Palestinian farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. As there is no work in the region, most of the men must work as day labourers for Israeli companies. Cultivating olives provided these farmers with an essential additional income. Sindyanna was able to buy irrigation permits, normally not easily accessible to Arabs, and voluntary workers helped the farmers work a rocky earth and to plant new olive trees there.[1] The organization also transforms and markets a mixture of typically Galilean herbs, called Za’atar. This mixture comprises various kinds of wild thyme, sesame seeds and olive oil. The profits are reinvested in the community programmes.

Context

Production procedures for the raw material used in the Za’atar product are less than adequate, particularly in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. There is no awareness of standards, no training and no institutions to enforce the regulations. As an approved food production plant, Sindyanna of Galilee must meet accepted standards of local and international markets.

In the processing, too, there is a lack of knowledge of and means to guarantee the high standards of quality that customers require. Many times, Sindyanna has been compelled to pay heavy penalties, in money or in confidence, when goods they supplied were found to be defective or did not meet the standard set.

Support from the Fair Trade Centre

The support provided by the Fair Trade Centre has enabled Sindyanna to hire a professional food engineer to develop a high quality control system. The project also supports improvement of the quality-hygiene manual for workers, both in producing raw materials and in processing the Za’atar, as well as the creation of an extensive document on the quality control system. Finally, the project ensures the transfer of information to consumers along with the training of people who will be able to continue the work at the end of the project.