ACDI/VOCA Helps Gaza Farmers Earn EurepGAP Certification

The West Bank has been hard hit in recent years by political and social turmoil. The local economy has been weakened by violent political skirmishes and government instability.

However, the development of the Palestinian agriculture sector is a promising way to reverse the stagnation and regression of the Palestinian economy in Gaza. Gaza has nearly 16,500 hectares of cultivated agricultural lands, representing about 46 percent of the total area. They produce several cash crops, including citrus, strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and carnations. The sector accounts for around 16 percent of formal Palestinian employment, 39 percent of informal employment and sustenance for 17 percent of families who cultivate land for home consumption, making it critical to the fate of many family-level livelihoods.

ACDI/VOCA and PalTrade, a national trade development organization in Palestine, worked with four Gaza cooperatives to help revitalize agribusiness and increase member incomes by addressing the requirements of EurepGAP certification. EurepGAP, one of the primary internationally accepted Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards, provides a framework for enforcing quality control for horticulture products imported into Europe. In May 2006, in spite of very difficult security conditions in and around Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, certification was completed and the first EurepGAP certificates in Palestine were awarded to 29 strawberry and cherry tomato farms. This major internationally recognized achievement bodes well for the ability of the farmers to reach out to global markets and increase their sales and profits.

The cooperatives and farmers realize how critical this achievement is for sustaining exports of fresh crops to the European market. In addition to the insecure conditions in which the farmers are working and the repeated and prolonged closures of border terminals between Gaza and Israel, Agrexco, the Israeli export company that handles the export of fresh crops to Europe, issued a letter stating that they will not accept any non-EurepGAP certified crops after Dec. 31, 2006. This letter underscores the growing need for EurepGAP standards and certification for future cash crop sales.

In a 2006 evaluation, farmers said that ACDI/VOCA’s project has “responded to a real need in the cash crop and overall agribusiness sector” and they reported a change in attitude concerning possibilities of increased profitability and production rates. The evaluation team found the interventions to be highly relevant and rated the achievement of objectives and outputs to be of a satisfactory level.

With support from ACDI/VOCA under the USDA 416 (b) Program, a group of farmers has already started exporting EurepGAP-certified strawberries for the first time in Palestine. The cooperatives and more farmers are now seeking additional support to attain certification in order to be able to sustain this rewarding business.