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After several meetings and discussions with the support program team, the ENPARD Palestine think tank decided to focus their activities on the marketing and promotion of Palestinian agricultural products in European markets. The underlying objective is for Palestine to fully benefit from the European market access granted by the European Union – “duty-free, quota-free” - by increasing the volumes of products considered as having high potential and improving their added value from exports to the EU.

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In this context, the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Palestinian Trade Center, conducted a preparatory work meeting with a group of Palestinian stakeholders to identify specific European markets and Palestinian products with high export potential in these markets. Five groups of products and four target countries have been identified during that meeting: 

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• Selected products: aromatic and medicinal plants; dates; sweet peppers (capsicum); olive oil; cluster tomatoes.

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• Target countries: The Netherlands; Germany; Italy; Sweden.

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The targeting of products with high export potential and European markets enabled the ENPARD Support Program team to identify European experts specialised in these targeted markets and/or selected products with different profiles (import promotion desks, researcher/lecturer, independent consultants, etc.).

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In order to effectively and thoroughly address the issues related to the marketing of Palestinian agricultural products to European markets, a workshop was held from 10 to 12 July 2017, which was attended by a range of stakeholders from agricultural and trade sectors (representatives of the various ministries concerned, farmers, exporters, para-governmental organisations, etc.).

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The first two days of the seminar were devoted to the presentation of the main characteristics of the markets for olive oil, tomatoes, sweet peppers, dates and aromatic and medicinal plants in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany by the international experts. The export potential of Palestinian products in these markets was highlighted as well as the difficulties to overcome, the conditions to fulfil to develop their sales on those markets, and the main competitors.

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The markets identified appear to be very competitive (in particular in the case of olive oil, dates or tomatoes in Italy and Germany) or in development in the category of high-quality products strongly associated with gastronomy (aromatic and medicinal plants, olive oil in Sweden and Germany in particular).

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Innovation in packaging represents an important factor in the development of sales (original and eco-friendly packaging, fresh variegated products...). Even in markets considered as highly competitive and presumably saturated, marketing innovation has the potential to make a product stand out and gain market shares.

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On another note, according to the mobilised experts, Palestinian products, which are under-represented on the European markets, could benefit more from a capital of sympathy for Palestine which could help them in better positioning themselves against their competitors.

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Moreover, the experts insisted on the importance of storytelling, the necessity of creating a story around a proposed product and associated cultural traits which would bring forward its character, authenticity and originality to establish an identity and to ensure interest of the European consumers, who usually are highly found of this type of marketing. 

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Last but not least, Palestinian exporters should satisfy and put forth the reliability, traceability and predictability conditions required by the European operators. The products should meet the norms imposed in the identified countries and to also abide by the specific regulations of the importers. Palestinian producers should go beyond these requirements and focus on promising niches in Europe, such as organic agricultural products or fair trade.

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Simultaneously, it seems equally relevant to consider the development of exports of new products that were not identified by PalTrade in the list of fruits and vegetables for this workshop, but which are compatible with the climatic and environmental conditions in Palestine: avocado (the demand is greatly increasing in EU countries), pomegranates, raspberries, figs, exotic fruits etc. Such products are already exported by countries with conditions similar to that of Palestine and they have gained high popularity on the European market.

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The third day of the seminar was focused on restitution of the works achieved in the two previous days, in an open conference with a wider public of economic operators (70-80 persons), and in the presence of the Palestinian Ministers of Economy and Agriculture, the President of PalTrade and the Head for Cooperation at the EU delegation in Palestine.

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Following the introductive speeches of the two Ministers, the President of PalTrade and the representative of the EU delegation in Palestine, in addition to a brief presentation of PalTrade strategy, the European experts conducted a presentation of their works and recommendations achieved during the first two days of the workshop as well as a summary of the exchanges and discussions that took place with the participants.

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As a conclusion, Hussam Al Dakak, project chief at the German Import Promotion Desk for the fresh fruits and vegetables sector, provided a few useful tips and conditions necessary to increasing Palestine’s chance of exporting their products on the European market:

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• Target niche markets such as organic agriculture or fair trade;

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• Establish marketing relations based on trust, reliability and honesty by creating partnerships with operators in the targeted countries;

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• Build a history and strong identity to increase the value of Palestinian products;

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• Elaborate a strong and long-term communication strategy to reinforce the image and notoriety of Palestinian products. To that effect fluency in English is essential;

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• Rely on support programmes and institutes that promote imports to better know the targeted markets.

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A third workshop will be organised to follow up on the work achieved on the marketing of agricultural Palestinian products to European markets. The idea could be to focus on one market and a limited number of products to tackle the issue at a deeper level and to take more practical considerations.

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You will find the presentations of the experts at the following address: http://cloudia.iamm.fr/index.php/s/Pn7wI2n2CxVoAip

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You can also download the detailed Palestinian Trade Center report by clicking here.

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