For the marketing and selling of local Palestinian cooperatives’ products
The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) launched Bas Baladi outlet store for the marketing and selling of local Palestinian cooperatives’ products, in the presence of The District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam, Ministry of Agriculture Representative Mr. Ibrahim Iktishat and a number of officials, partners, civil society representatives, women cooperatives and farmers. The activity is within SULALAH project. The Project is funded by the European Union (EU) as part of the Food Security Program in the occupied Palestinian territory. It is implemented by UAWC in partnership with Gruppo di Volontariato Civile (GVC), the Palestinian Hydrology Group for Water and Environmental Resources Development (PHG), Qatar Charity, LaoreSardegna, Jericho’s Cooperative Association for Livestock Production and Altamerh’s Cooperative Association for Livestock Development.
The District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam and UAWC’s General Director Khalid Hidmi pointed at the importance of supporting the productive cooperatives especially the women cooperatives and market them to support the local products and boycott the Israeli goods. The manager of SULALAH project Grace Odeh emphasized that the activity aims to open new markets for the Palestinian farmers’ cooperatives that were objected to several production trainings in order to produce according to the Palestinians quality standards. Odeh also highlighted that UAWC has supported many agricultural and livestock cooperatives in marketing their products in local, regional and international markets in the past years.
The director of UAWC’s Development and Operations department Fuad Abu Seif stated that UAWC along with its partners will continue their support to the cooperatives which is a main objective of UAWC.
UAWC illustrated that Bas Baladi outlet contains around 100 entries of competitive local products that are all organic and free from any chemical inputs.
It is important to note that SULALAH project targets the most vulnerable areas, communities and small-scale farmers of the East Slopes of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and Jericho, especially area C where more than 30,000 Palestinians live.
SULALAH aims to move herders from aid dependence to self-sustaining growth through livestock husbandry development and market expansion. UAWC aims to achieve the project’s goals through improving food security of Palestinian female and male herders by protecting, sustaining and developing livestock production. The project also aims to improve the resilience of vulnerable herders living in the Eastern slopes of the West Bank by enhancing their production capacities, increasing their access to assets and creating income-generating opportunities from livestock productions.
