Marketing for Olive Co-operative

Would a wholefood shop near you be interested in stocking Palestinian olive oil? Would your favourite gift shop like to sell embroidery from a women’s handicraft collective in the West Bank? Would you like to see Olive’s leaflets in your local Arabic takeaway? Olive Co operative welcomes people taking the initiate to help us market our products and tours. Please feel free to pick up some leaflets from our office and help us to distribute them is suitable places, or contact local shops to enquire about whether they would be interested in stocking any of our products.

If you have any questions or would like more information about our suppliers, please contact anan(AT)olivecoop.com

Promoting Palestinian suppliers

Olive Cooperative has links with a broad range of grassroots Palestinian organisations who supply our products and who meet with our tour groups. We are always looking for people to increase the profile of these inspiring organisations, both on the internet and amongst appropriate networks. Such networks might include political, cultural, historic or religious groups, fair trade groups, Middle Eastern societies, co-operative groups, trade unions. If you think you might be able to help please get in touch with the Olive Cooperative office.

Selling Fairly Traded Palestinian Products

We are always interested in hearing from people who are interested in selling Olive Co-operative’s fairly traded Palestinian products to your networks anywhere in the UK. Olive Co-op can offer favourable terms, support and discounts for people intending to run stalls or other events. Favourable terms include 5% off for purchases of £100 or more, and 10% off for purchases of £200 or more. In addition, Olive Co-op will buy-back any un-sold products in good condition, so risks are very low. Please place a provisional order on the on-line shop to give an idea of the products you would like. Please be in touch with the Olive Cooperative office for more detailed discussion of your preferences.

Product Development in Palestine

Olive Co-op needs volunteers to develop products in Palestine. You would be placed for one to three weeks with one or more of our fair trade suppliers such as Dehaishe Womens Embroidery Collective in Bethlehem, Project Hope in Nablus or Trees for Life in Jenin.

You would work with Olive Co-operative and Palestinian suppliers to develop new and existing products and services to meet demand from UK customers. This includes taking marketing photographs of products, production processes and people; writing up interviews with suppliers, writing short and/or long marketing descriptions for use on-line and with product packaging; helping suppliers to develop new specific products and services to meet demand from UK customers.

Volunteers will be provided with full training, support and fundraising assistance from the UK and free accomodation in Palestine. You can participate for a nominal contribution in any Olive tours that coincide with your placement. You will need to cover your own flight (around £250), transport (around £20 per week) and out of pocket expenses (around £4 to £10 per day). You will need excellent e-mail, telephone and written communication skills in English.

To apply for a placement in Palestine, please contact the Olive office.

Volunteering in Olive office

Olive Co-op is always interested in hearing from volunteers in the Manchester area who would like to help with tasks in the office, with running stalls or events or with other activities as appropriate. In return we will endeavour to offer interesting tasks and useful training and experience. Volunteers who have shown they can do a particular job are then in a strong position to apply for any vacancies. If you have time and skills you would like to contribute, please call into the office at Bridge 5 Mill, 22a Beswick St, Manchester M4 7HR or email us your CV.