topic Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay. in Beauty

Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

skapoor — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:46:16 GMT

Removed link contained political sidebar

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

KingstonsMom — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:43:52 GMT

Whether it is being drizzled on salads or turned into face creams, Morocco's argan oil is the latest culinary and cosmetic must-have. But with sales soaring around the world, concerns remain about the pay and conditions of the mainly female workforce that produces the oil.

I watch as a group of women each use two rocks, one large, one small, to smash open the fruit to get to the seeds inside a very hard central nutshell.

They sit on cushions on the floor of a cool stone house, beside big piles of the fruit.

"I want a better job, with a better salary," says one of the workers, 37-year-old Samira Chari. "But there is nothing else. This is my only option."

We are in the Moroccan countryside, some 25km (15.5 miles) inland from the port city of Essaouira, halfway down the country's Atlantic coast. It is warm and sunny, and lush green argan trees pepper the arid landscape.

The women are employed by a business called Marjana, one of around 300 small firms, mostly co-operatives, that now produce argan oil by extracting it from the seeds.

The trees themselves, which are up to 10m (33 ft) tall, are found all over Morocco.

Often called the country's "liquid gold", global sales of argan oil are soaring, helped by studies that suggest it has health benefits. Production, which is almost all from Morocco, is expected to reach 19,623 US tons or $1.79bn (£1.4bn) by 2022 up from 4,836 US tons in 2014.

In Morocco argan is traditionally used as a foodstuff - a dip for bread or drizzled on couscous - and as a medicine. But the big growth in demand is being led by the worldwide cosmetics industry. In addition to face creams, it is now being added products like lip gloss, shampoo, moisturisers and soaps.

The women who harvest the seeds are more often from the Berber ethnic group, and this is the case at Marjana, where staff manager Amina Bouna says they bring age-old skills.

"Only Berber women know how to extract the oil," she says. "It's old Berber knowledge. Otherwise we have all types of women here - young, old, married and divorced."

The 80 women at the company are allowed to work as much as they like. But despite many working from early mornings until evenings, they normally make less than $221 (£170) a month, says Ms Bouna - below Morocco's recommended national minimum wage.

"But it's better than they stay at home," argues Ms Bouna. "Before, they made the oil at home. Their husbands sold it on the market and kept the money. Now they don't need their husbands' money, as they make their own. It's a win-win situation."

The workers do get some health insurance and pensions provision, but Ms Chari wants to see wages go up. Divorced, she says she has to work long hours to afford medicine for her daughter. She says if she were paid more, she'd be able to spend more time with her child.

As the industry becomes more lucrative, the issue of the women's wages has become an increasingly hot topic. Zoubida Charrouf, a chemistry professor at Mohammed V University of Rabat is one of the leading advocates for higher salaries.

Article at BBC.com

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

SilleeMee — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 15:06:43 GMT

It's called 'equilibrium' in economics...supply meets demand. If the price is too low then supplies get depleted and then prices rise with competition among suppliers.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

Susan-QVC — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 15:18:12 GMT

This post has been removed by QVC unkind

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

Annabellethecat66 — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 15:20:30 GMT

I hope they get more money. I told you guys I’ve worried so much...so often about those poor women Josie shows when selling her argon oil....cracking those nuts with a rock..day in..day out!

Perhaps I’m being facetious, but more likely I’m trying to show ( based on the article) how ridiculous that video is.

I don’t exactly live under a rock...so I would’ve heard a little sumptin’ about argon oil...but I can’t say as I did...as much til’ Josie came to QVC.

I hope she bought a few acres of those trees.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

millieshops — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 16:29:18 GMT

When will the year come that women can end their fight for good economic opportunity?

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

Nightowlz — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 16:43:08 GMT

Yes they should be paid more money. It's that simple.

The rich get richer that's how it goes. They keep taking away from those that need it the most so those that need it the least can have some more???

They don't care about their employees. If they did you would see it in their pay & other benefits. The head honcho is generally sitting back on their throne.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

Nightowlz — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 16:44:59 GMT

@millieshops wrote:
When will the year come that women can end their fight for good economic opportunity?

@millieshops

IMO it will never happen.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

skapoor — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 17:07:41 GMT

Thanks for posting the informtion. I did not know where the political sidebar came for the mods to delete it.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

skapoor — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 17:09:44 GMT

I don't understand @QVC why is it unkind. It was not meant to demean anyone.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

noodleann — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 17:45:37 GMT

Someone with an understanding of how to do it should go into those communities and organize the women to create a collective that will broker this substance to the companies buying it, to support higher compensation and benefits for the women.

I saw a snippet from one presentation of a young woman violently pounding something that I think represented the creation of the oil. I thought that the poor gal would have only so many years doing that work before her joints fought back and she couldn't do it any longer, or keep up.

I've never tried argan oil, and since it seems "opportunistically harvested," don't think I will.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

KingstonsMom — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 19:01:04 GMT

@skapoor wrote:
Thanks for posting the informtion. I did not know where the political sidebar came for the mods to delete it.

@skapoor

You're welcome!

When I went to your link and saw the political content on sidebars, I knew it would be deleted, so I thought I would post the content for you!

Welcome to the forums!

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

Andreatoo — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 20:19:57 GMT

@KingstonsMom

sidebars you say? Must have been Shawn Killinger...

Thanks for the article. Interesting.

And while I'm not condoning the minimal salaries the fact that they have insurance and pensions is a giant step up from others' conditions around the globe...

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

KingstonsMom — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 21:42:38 GMT

@Andreatoo wrote:
@KingstonsMom
sidebars you say? Must have been Shawn Killinger......

@Andreatoo

Huh? Sorry, I don't understand why political sidebars are related to Shawn, but that's okay!

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

Andreatoo — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 21:48:45 GMT

@KingstonsMom

She frequently uses the expression 'sidebar'

I was trying to be funny...

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

Reever — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 21:59:57 GMT

@Nightowlz wrote:
@millieshops wrote:
When will the year come that women can end their fight for good economic opportunity?
@millieshops

IMO it will never happen.

It happens in any corporation - CEOs pocket multi million dollar salaries plus stock options and the rank and file people get peanuts. Its getting worse and worse since the 1960s. The top one percent owns everyone and everything in our once great country.

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

KingstonsMom — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 22:10:59 GMT

@Andreatoo

Oh, okay! I don't watch QVC so I didn't know that she says that often, LOL!

Thank you for the explanation!

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

tsavorite — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 22:13:30 GMT

@noodleann wrote:
Someone with an understanding of how to do it should go into those communities and organize the women to create a collective that will broker this substance to the companies buying it, to support higher compensation and benefits for the women.

I saw a snippet from one presentation of a young woman violently pounding something that I think represented the creation of the oil. I thought that the poor gal would have only so many years doing that work before her joints fought back and she couldn't do it any longer, or keep up.

I've never tried argan oil, and since it seems "opportunistically harvested," don't think I will.

Had no idea...that is very physical job for long days. I have seen that photo Josie puts up but I thought it was just for show. You know like this is where it comes from...I didn't think these women were actually sitting like that all day long pounding with rocks to make oil. I thought the nuts got gathered up and sent to a factory to extract it...and her photo was just showing how locals used to do it.

They should be paid much more money for such labor intensive work...but lot's of places around world pay for low wages that it is shocking to me.

I hope they get a pay increase....soon!

Re: Women who make Argan oil want better pay.

BrandiDavis — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 22:58:29 GMT

@Andreatoo wrote:
@KingstonsMom
She ~~frequently~~ excessively uses the expression 'sidebar'

I was trying to be funny...

@Andreatoo LOL it's so annoying, it's like every other word is sidebar or juicy - It has gotten to where I don't even watch her shows anymore, b/c it irritates me. Not that I was really a fan of hers to begin with, I just like to see what is presented sometimes.