Ajddigue Women's Argan Cooperative

What it does: Argan oil harvest and production
Based: Tidzi, Morocco
Founded: 1997
Employees: 6
Revenue: $231,062 (2007)

In southern Morocco, oil produced from the indigenous argan tree is key to the local economy—and benefits the women who are its primary harvesters. Familiar with the importance of the trees from her work as a doctoral student, Zoubida Charrouf founded the Ajddigue cooperative in 1997 to mechanize production in order to widen the market for the oil, generate new work opportunities for local women, and protect the rapidly disappearing trees. (Argan trees, which grow only in the arid semi-desert climate of southern Morocco, produce pods that when crushed and processed, yield an oil that is valued for its taste and flavor.) Originally considered a marginal business, the coop now has 60 members and continues to grow. There are now 130 other cooperatives for harvesting and marketing argan oil in Morocco.

Read the complete case study