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One Middle Eastern culinary enterprise announced its UK revenue jumped by 50% to £3.2m in 2024, as shoppers increasingly purchase its olive oil in solidarity with communities in Gaza and the West Bank.

The brand, translating to "olive tree" in Arabic, is a social enterprise established to strengthen the resilience of local communities through fair trade.

Purchasing extra virgin olive oil and medjool dates from the territory has given customers a concrete way to assist local farmers, according to the chief executive.

"They could hold it in their hand and say, I have achieved this, even if it’s a modest act," she remarked. The sharp sales increase demonstrated "people wanting to make a difference with their purchasing power," she noted.

At this time of year, a marketing push by the ethical trade organization seeks to boost recognition and sales of products that carry the charity’s certification.

The mark is a assurance that producers receive a set base rate, plus an extra amount known as the Fairtrade premium, which is placed into a communal fund for laborers and growers to utilize as they deem appropriate. In the current year, UK revenue of Fairtrade goods including brewed beans, herbal blends and tropical fruit generated £28 million in premiums.

Nonetheless, shoppers seeking the recognizable symbol will fail to see it on the brand's product. This is due to the security situation implies nobody is in a position to complete the checks required for certification.

"We haven’t been able to get Fairtrade organic certified olive oil out of Palestine for almost a year now," said the director. "Official inspectors pulled out at minimal warning and without a handover."

In a announcement released on recently, the Fairtrade Foundation and wider fair trade movement vowed to "speak out in solidarity with the people of the Gaza region and the occupied areas whose prospects are being deliberately undermined."

Eleanor Harrison, the Fairtrade Foundation's chief executive, stated that as a collective "our group hold that every person has the entitlement to reside and labor in security and shape their own destiny."

She added: "Our movement stand for justice, unity, and the empowerment of individuals to decide on their own paths. We cannot remain silent while the fundamentals of existence are being devastated."

Zaytoun is continuing buying the "same" product from small-scale farmers in the territories, and has optimism that a recently appointed regional inspector will be established to approve the new harvest. The 500ml bottles sell for approximately £15.

The pictures of destruction in Gaza render it difficult to conceive of farming activities. But cultivating olives is integral to the majority of rural Palestine, said the director. "The landscape is dotted with ancient trees … most families own some whether it’s 20 or many."

"The hardiness of the tree, what it can withstand, is very much symbolic to the people. It’s a symbol for their resilience and durability through all these challenging periods."

While demand for Zaytoun products, which feature almonds and large grains, has been robust, keeping the show on the road has not been easy.

Its products are transported from the neighboring port of Haifa, but the transit is lengthy. The trucks must make detours to pass checkpoints, and the loads need to be arranged far less high than full load to allow detection animals to leap across them.

What appeared as an "unworkable condition" in 2004, when the initiative began as a volunteer-led initiative by a group of friends motivated by a visit to the region, has only got worse, the founder said.

"But we’ve observed the market interest here correspond to that escalation … From last year to this year we grew by approximately 50% due to the UK market seeking to show support in some way."

She mentioned that at the outset observers doubted whether the brand was a sustainable enterprise. "The products are really costly to buy, so there’s not much profit margin," she said, noting that the "costs are really high here for buyers, so many thought they wouldn’t purchase them."

"The venture was simply an act that then gained traction thanks to people embracing it. At no point did it feel like a thing that had any kind of longevity."

"But 21 years later, here we are."