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Moroccan People’s Development:Certifying Organic Almonds and Walnuts of the

High Atlas Mountains

The Goal of Securing Organic Certification of High Atlas Almonds and Walnuts:

To raise the income levels of marginalized Moroccan family farmers in a way that will also increase local investments in education, health, and economic (including agricultural) development – stemming urban migration and realizing communities’ vast growth potential.

The coming together of rare factors makes this project possible:

• Almonds can be grown in just a few places in the world – Spain, Australia, Chile, USA (California), and Morocco

• The same 13 Communes (or municipalities) of the High Atlas that grow almonds also grow 25% of Morocco’s walnuts – and they surround the Toubkal National Park

• The global conventional (non-organic) prices of almonds and walnuts have doubled in the past ten years, but the price paid to Moroccan farmers and have remained fairly constant;

● HAF has earned the trust of local people by following through on participatory development – planting more than 450,000 fruit trees (impacting 2,500 families), building 13 clean drinking water systems (3,000 people), implementing women and youth projects (60 families), and conducting many participatory development training programs – impacting every household in the Toubkal Commune (9,000 people) and in sites in 6 other provinces of Morocco.

• This is a unique opportunity to create an organic-export model for the country – raising by 100% from current production value through organic certification

• HAF as the project manager and facilitating international trade partnerships becomes the mechanism for new investments in local human development

There are two Phases to this project:

Phase I: Stop the Slide:There is an urgent need for education to stem decreasing yields, which are due to old and diseased trees that are poorly spread apart and irrigated

• Due to their deteriorating agricultural situation, local people have come to believe that applying pesticides is the needed corrective action, but this will worsen the situation – these trees have been grown in this mountain region for centuries and pesticides are not needed for younger trees that are fully gleaned when harvested (they do not attract insects and viruses)

• To secure organic certification and implement sustainable corrective action, data collection is first needed, including:

oGPS plotting of family farms and their contentso Identification of plots that can be immediately

certified organic, needed remedies for specific plots to acquire certification

oMonitoring income, health, and education levels, and project benefits

Phase II: Build Practices to Gain Next Level:

• Building on this data, technicians are needed to transfer knowledge and skills, especially related to planting, pruning, and irrigation (drip systems)

o This component is provided by HAF with funding support from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) - $75,000 covers 4 mountain Communes, including Toubkal

o $7,500 in the budget submitted to AFGG for organization development would be used to engage international expertise

• Implement tree planting based on new practices

oHAF raises $40,000 to $80,000 for fruit tree planting annually, and will dedicate $25,000 for trees in the Toubkal Commune this 2013 season

• Develop branding of product in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture

• Establish a new Coop – a HAF fiduciary – to acquire, sell, and link farmers to their product

• Extend the model to other national park areas in Morocco

Yield and Income Projections of First Targeted Site – the Toubkal Commune:

Walnuts:

• Individual farmers currently sell their product in local markets• There are approximately 40,000 walnut trees in the region, half

are still maturing (with training and irrigation development, this amount of trees could double)

• One mature tree yields an average of 100 kg of in-shell walnuts• There are 3 million kg of in-shell walnuts every year, or 1

million kg of shelled walnuts (after sun drying)

• The price of shelled walnuts farmers receive is $5.80 per kg• Conventional growers in the U.S. receive $7.40 per kg for

shelled walnuts; organic growers receive $13.00 per kg for shelled walnuts

• Organic certification of the Toubkal Commune’s walnuts (generating $13 million gross in 10 to 15 years as trees mature) will double their value for farmers – paying $11.60 per kg; in addition, deducted from the gross amount is $500,000 to ship the product from the Commune to the U.S. by container and then to buyers (storage in New Jersey will be provided in-kind by TA Associates); the remaining gross amount generated - $900,000 or 7% of gross – will cover HAF’s operational costs related to the project (20%) and enable new human development project investments ($720,000)

• $720,000 would enable, for example, building 70 village-based clean drinking water systems (halving infant mortality among a population of 15,000 people); or planting 1.5 million saplings in community tree nurseries – impacting 75,000 people; or 15 villages with improved irrigation systems (economically and environmentally benefiting 3,000 people)

Almonds:

• There are approximately 12,000 almond trees in the Toubkal Commune

• One mature tree yields an average of 30 kg of in-shell walnuts• There are 360,000 kg of in-shell almonds every year, or 120,000 kg of

shelled almonds (after sun drying)• The price of shelled almonds for the family farm is $5.80 per kg• Conventional growers in the U.S. receive $6.05 per kg for shelled

almonds (nonpareil variety); organic growers receive $10.45 per kg for shelled almonds

• Organic certification of the Toubkal Commune’s almonds (generating $1.25 million gross) will increase the price by 50% for farmers – paying $9.00 per kilo; in addition, deducted from the gross amount is $100,000 to ship the product from the Commune to the U.S. by container and then to buyer; the remaining gross amount generated - $250,000 – will cover HAF’s operational costs related to the project (20%) and enable new human development project investments ($200,000).

Join us in assisting Moroccan communities meet their vital needs and achieve their transformative potential.

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