Blog #3.21 Ankrime Cooperative

Ankrime Cooperative in Inraren village (Photo by Tara Deubel)

During our first day of household interviews, we visited the village of Inraren. Many of the women in the village that work with argan also work with the Ankrime cooperative. 

We were welcomed greatly by everyone at this small, local cooperative and felt very welcomed. We were greeted with some delicious snacks including bread with dips of: amelou (which became a quick favorite for our group), argan oil, honey, and a variety of other sweets and desserts. Of course we were served tea as well! 

Lftour breakfast served at the cooperative (Photo by Isabelle Haddad)

After our first household interview we were treated once again to a lovely lunch that consisted of a salad starter (that I thought could be the main course), tagine, and dessert. 

“Jardin” (garden) salad (Photo by Isabelle Haddad)

Chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives (Photo by Isabelle Haddad)

After returning from our second household interview, we were shown a display of all the women performing each step of the argan oil production process. I also tried to get times for all the different processes and steps. From our household interviews we’ve learned that it can take 15 days or up to a month for collecting the affyache. For dehusking and cracking, the time it takes to complete one 60kg bag of affyache with only women takes about 1 week each. This was said to depend on the women’s experience however, with younger women who are not as experienced it can take about 1-2 months. 

For roasting, the method can vary, which also changes the time necessary. At this cooperative, they had a small pan for roasting, which means it takes a longer time to roast because they also have to roast them in smaller amounts. Other co-operatives have this step mechanized, have larger pans, or use tagines which can make the roasting process less sensitive to the amount of heat needed. With this smaller pan however, it usually takes about 1.5-2 hours to roast enough nuts to fill a 3kg basket (basket is shown in picture below as well). While usually it can take about 30 minutes - 1 hour.

The process of grinding 3 kg of argan nuts can take about 1 hour depending on the worker and their strength. 

Grinding argan nut paste in the cooperative (Photo by Isabelle Haddad)

Pressing the dough also depends on the worker, but for one red basin which can hold up to 3.5 kg of dough it can take about 30 minutes-1 hour. 

Kneading the dough made from adding water to the nut paste to separate the argan oil (Photo by Isabelle Haddad)

Everyone was very welcoming and happy to answer all of my specific questions on timing! And of course we couldn’t leave without purchasing some of the traditionally hand-made argan oil to bring as gifts back home!

Research team and cooperative members

-By Isabelle Haddad, Environmental Systems PhD student at UC-Merced