Traditional Method of Argan Production

UNESCO and people excited about the culinary and cosmetic properties of the Argan Oil have created a global market for this exotic oil. This increase in demand has provided opportunities for Co-operatives of Women to produce the oil and have economic benefits. Although, there are some larger scale operations arriving to mass-produce the argan oil, the quality is not as good as the argan oil produced by the Traditional Methods in the Women’s Co-Operatives.

We encourage you to support the local cottage industries by buying argan products from the Co-operatives.

The Traditional Method of Argan Production that is being used today at the Women’s Co-Operatives is very much the same as it has been done for centuries by the Berbers of Morocco. Women sit on the floor cracking the pits and grinding the seeds by hand. At the same time they are taking, laughing and sharing their stories with each other. It takes 20 hours of intensive labor to produce one liter of argan oil. This is truly a labor of love.

STAGES OF ARGAN OIL PRODUCTION

Those Climbing Goats
Goats climb the knobby branches of the argan trees. This is a site to behold on a road trip through the southwestern regions of Morocco. They eat the fruits of the argan tree and leave behind the hard shell with the nuts inside of them.
Workers collect the Argan shells from the terrain and bring them to the Co-operatives.

Pulping
The pulping is a separation of the dry exterior pulp from the inside nut. The nut or “aqua” is solid and there may be 1-3 in each casing. The nut is placed on a stone and another stone is used to open it with precision and dexterity.

Crushing
The crushing is a manual step in which the “aqua”,(argan almonds) are crushed into a think paste. This stage is very difficult and has not been able to be reproduced by machinery.

Grinding
The argan past is placed into a stone mill in which an argan meal is produced. The cosmetic oil is processed by a stone mill machine to reduce the flavor and give the oil neutrality. The culinary oil is processed by a traditional stone mill, which allows the nutty flavor and aroma to be preserved. The culinary nuts are roasted before the grinding takes place.

Manual Mixing of the Argan Meal
This is the most difficult and tiring step. The argan meal is hand mixed with long circular strokes going both fast and slow. The meal becomes a paste and then a loaf of argan is prepared, known as the “tazquemout.”

Pressing the Argan Loaf
The argan loaf is pressed by hand in order to extract a maximum amount of oil. This is a slow and difficult process. Once the maximum amount of oil has been retrieved, the oil is ready for filtration. The remaining loaf is given to animals or sold to the cosmetics industry to be used in shampoos and other products having argan extracts.

Filtering of the Argan Oil
In this stage the argan oil is filtered manually several times. The Argan oil has a thick, dense and raw quality since it has been hand pressed. This helps to preserve its wonderful original flavor and aroma. It also maintains all the vital nutrients that give it its magnificent medicinal properties.

The Argan Oil Traditional Production Method Transforms the Argan
into Morocco’s Liquid Gold