Module 026 · Sustainability & Labour
The Argan Constellation
20 hours of labour. 40 kilograms of fruit. 1 litre of oil.
Argan oil — Morocco's liquid gold — comes from the kernel of a tree that grows nowhere else on earth. UNESCO declared the Arganeraie a Biosphere Reserve in 1998. The traditional extraction method has not changed in centuries: women gather, dry, crack, grind, and knead by hand. It takes 20 hours and 40 kilograms of fruit to produce a single litre. That litre sells for $50 at the cooperative gate. By the time it reaches a luxury shelf in Paris, the price per litre equivalent exceeds $900. Meanwhile, the forest that produces it is shrinking by 600 hectares a year.
20h
manual labour
per litre, traditional method
2.5M
hectares
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
655
cooperatives
86% women-run (ODCO)
2.2M
people
depend on argan economy
The Extraction
7 steps from tree to bottle. Hover each ring to see the labour. Arc length = proportion of total hours.
Extraction Steps
Per 1 litre. Traditional method. No machines. Estimates: 20–40 hours depending on source.
The Price Chain
From the woman's hands to the luxury shelf. Each bar = price at that stage.
Average wage at cooperative: MAD 8–10/hr (~$0.80–1.00)
Sold in bulk to intermediaries. €50/L in Morocco.
Bottled, branded. Souk or pharmacy.
Imported, certified organic. B2B price.
Blended into serums, 30ml bottles at $30+
€980/L equivalent. Small vials. Eurovision sponsor 2022–2024.
The woman who cracks the nuts earns $0.80/hour. The brand that bottles the oil sells it at $980/litre equivalent. That is a 1,225× markup from labour to luxury shelf.
The Cooperative Economy
The women
— 655 registered argan cooperatives (ODCO 2021)
— 86% of argan oil production by cooperatives
— First women's cooperative founded 1998 by Prof. Zoubida Charrouf
— First Fairtrade certified: Tighanimine Cooperative, 2011
— Average wage: MAD 8–10/hr ($0.80–1.00)
— Cooperatives fund literacy classes, healthcare, childcare
The squeeze
— Between 2008–2013, cooperative market share fell from majority to minority
— Intermediaries (hrayafis) earn €1,000–2,000/week — equal to a rights-holder's annual income
— 16+ private pressing plants (est. 2006), mostly foreign-owned
— Mechanised oil costs $22/L; cooperative oil costs $50/L
— L'Oréal, Moroccanoil dominate global distribution
— Women are increasingly reduced to raw kernel suppliers
The Fading Halo
Arganeraie forest coverage, 1960–2025. Hectares of argan woodland. The green is shrinking.
−51%
since 1960
600
hectares lost/year
Before reforestation. Overgrazing, charcoal, urbanisation.
43,000
ha reforestation target
Green Climate Fund / ANDZOA. Arganiculture orchards.
10 May
International Day of Argania
UN General Assembly 2021. Resolution 75/262. 113 co-sponsors.
The Raw Numbers
40 kg
fruit per litre
20 kg
nuts per litre
3 kg
kernels per litre
150 kg
fruit → 3 litres (UN)
$369M
global market 2025
$836M
projected 2032
12.4%
CAGR 2025–2032
1897
first mention by Lumière
1998
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
2014
UNESCO Intangible Heritage
2018
FAO GIAHS recognition
2021
UN Day of Argania (May 10)
Reading Notes
The 20-Hour Litre
Sources vary between 10 and 40 hours per litre depending on method and inclusion of gathering/drying time. The most cited academic figure is 20 hours for fully traditional extraction. Semi-mechanised cooperatives (machine-pressed after hand-cracking) reduce this to 8–12 hours. Fully mechanised industrial plants: under 2 hours. The cracking step alone — stone on stone, kernel by kernel — accounts for roughly a third of all labour.
The 1,225× Question
A woman earns $0.80 per hour cracking argan nuts. Her 20 hours of labour produce one litre. That litre leaves the cooperative at $50. When it appears in a Moroccanoil vial, the per-litre equivalent is $980. This is not unusual in luxury cosmetics — but it is worth stating plainly. Between 2022 and 2024, Moroccanoil sponsored the Eurovision Song Contest. The cooperatives did not.
The Fading Halo
The argan forest has lost roughly half its coverage since 1960. The causes are overgrazing, charcoal production, urbanisation, and drought intensified by climate change. The Green Climate Fund is financing 10,000 hectares of new argan orchards. Morocco's target is 43,000 hectares. But the tree takes 50–60 years to reach full maturity. What was lost in a generation takes two to regrow.
Forty kilograms of fruit. Twenty hours of hands on stone. Three kilograms of kernels ground to paste. One litre of gold. This is the arithmetic of the argan tree — an equation written by women who never learned to write, in a forest that is slowly disappearing beneath them. The oil is everywhere now: in serums, in salads, in Eurovision sponsorship deals. The women who make it earn less than a dollar an hour. The forest that grows it loses 600 hectares a year. Everything about argan oil is precious — except, apparently, the hands and the land that produce it.
Sources
Labour hours: “20 hours of expert labor” per litre (GI case study, IPR Trends 2024); “up to 20 hours by hand” (Morocco Explore Tours); “about 40 hours” (Moroccan Elixir); “around 10 hours” (Epicurean & Culture / 30 kg kernels method). 40 kg fruit → 1 litre (Wikipedia / argan oil). Price data: €50/L cooperative gate, €980/L Moroccanoil retail equivalent (Equal Times investigative report). $0.80/hr wage: MAD 8–10/hr (field reports). 655 cooperatives, 86% production share (ODCO 2021). Market: $369M (2025), $836M (2032) at 12.4% CAGR (Persistence Market Research). Forest: 2.5M ha UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (Green Climate Fund FP022); 600 ha/yr loss (WEF, UNESCO); 43,000 ha reforestation target (GCF/ANDZOA). UNESCO designations: Biosphere Reserve 1998, Intangible Heritage 2014, FAO GIAHS 2018, UN Day of Argania 2021. Cooperative history: Prof. Zoubida Charrouf (first cooperative 1998, Tighanimine FT 2011). Forest coverage estimates reconstructed from GCF, UNESCO, and academic sources; pre-1990 figures approximate.
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