Improving Institutional Capacity:
Strengthening Farmer Organizations in the OIC Member Countries
47
Table 13: Summary of the Tighanimine Filahia Argan Oil Co-operative71
Type Local-scale; Producers’ organization
Women-only, smallholder-only
Origin Established in Morocco in the province of Agadir Idaoutanane in 2007 by 22 women
supported by various national and international institutions
Purpose Improves the socio-economic situation of the local population, especially women and girls
by helping them increase their autonomy and educate their children
Provides valuation of the Argan oil domestically and internationally.
Offers training (professionalizing)
Footprint  Village-level, with 68 members
Service
provision
Provides the following services for members:
 Commercializes cosmetic argan oil, Alimentary argan oil, Amlou72, Beauty cream,
Soap, Shampoo, Honey (sold only in Morocco)
 Develops best practices for the harvest of the raw material
 Instructs on best practices for storing raw materials
 Instructs on best practices in work techniques
Tighanimine also offers different certifications depending on members’ products:
 Fairtrade: The Fairtrade certification ensures fairer trading conditions for
disadvantaged producers in the South. These conditions give them the means to fight
poverty by themselves, to strengthen their position, to become increasingly
autonomous from the market (in as much as prevailing economic, environmental and
social criteria allow). Tighanimine was the first argan oil co-operative to benefit from
the Fairtrade certification since November 2011.
 IGP Argane: IGP Argane is a collective label which guarantees the authenticity and
traceability of argan oil as a single product strongly linked to the Amazigh culture.
This label also certifies that value chain benefits the producers belonging to the
territory of the argan tree.
 Slow Food: Slow Food Biodiversity Foundation promotes food biodiversity and
gastronomic traditions from around the world through environmentally and
culturally sustainable agriculture. Tighanimine argan oil has been certified by SLOW
FOOD since 2001.
 Eco Cert: Tighanimine argan oil is certified organic by EcoCert and ecological
cosmetics Greenlife.
Membership
profile
To be a Tighanimine co-operative member, one must:
 Be a female resident of the immediate geographical area
 Have an argan tree
 Be at least 18 years of age
 Respect the law of the co-operative
 Be accepted by the General Assembly
Business
model
The co-operative depends principally on membership fees (i.e. every new member must
pay 500 MAD [~US$60] to the organization) for capital and on credits/loans (e.g. to buy a
car for the co-operative, to convert the co-operative building, etc.).
71 This table is based on interviews with Tighanimine leadership in Morocco in October 2014.
72 Mixture of toasted almond paste and argan oil