Holy Land Olive OilSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2004 Deadline
Dear Friends of MRSCP,
We have been asked to let you know about the "Holy Land Olive Oil" project which imports organic, extra virgin Olive Oil directly from Palestine.
A Madison resident, Martha Boyd, is planning to order from the January shipment for this area. She has provided the information below. She is trying to judge how much should be ordered for our area, as larger quantities mean cheaper prices.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ORDERING, PLEASE LET HER KNOW BY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. You can contact her at boyd@wisc.edu or 608-250-4791.
Also, if anyone is interested in working on this project with Martha, please let her know. She's looking for volunteers to help expand this project.
Thanks,
Barb O.
MRSCP
INFORMATION ON HOLY LAND OLIVE OIL
Holy Land Olive Oil, based in the San Francisco Bay area, imports fairly traded, extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil from Palestinian growers. Bashir Anastas, started this as "an all-volunteer project to import Palestinian olive oil to help Palestinian farmers and raise funds for charity and the work for peace. It is now a startup enterprise with a mission to sustain a market for Palestinian olive oil in the US.
"Palestinian farmers, whose income has been devastated by Israeli policies of closure and war, are having great difficulty selling their produce. Neither Jordan nor Israel, the two natural markets, will accept the oil which is now the only annual source of income for many people. The oil is fresh and flavorful and is in the process of organic certification." (from their website, www.palestineoliveoil.org)
Martha says: "Several of us in Madison ordered bottles of Holy Land Olive Oil in Fall 2003 and were impressed with its quality and flavor. The 750 mL bottles cost around $10 depending on the size of the bulk order (prices listed below).
Harvest runs from early October through December, with both a Fall shipment and then another in January. Bashir expects the January U.S. shipment to be in the range of 2,200 cases, and is hoping to establish continuous availability after that".
Martha need to let Bashir know as soon as possible how many of the January shipment bottles/cases there might be interest for from Madison/the Midwest.
Anyone who would be interested in purchasing either individually or in bulk, please respond to Martha as soon as possible so she can have a sense of what to tell him. And if anyone has an organization or event where they would like to do outreach about this olive oil and potentially could take orders, let her know that, too.
The current price list
Expect prices to come down to between $8-$8.5 per bottle delivered for orders greater than 50 cases... (next year is a bumper crop and business costs will generally be lowered because of volume processing).
750mL bottles; 12 per case (all prices incl delivery)
1-4 cases @ $150.00/case
5-9 cases @ $132.00/case
10-24 cases @ $125/case
25-49 cases @ $116/case
50+ cases @ $112/case
For additional information please visit www.palestineoliveoil.org