The Rush for Argan Oil: A Chronicle of Patrimonalization of the Moroccan Territory

On the North Mediterranean shore countries, the certification of the local products is extensively fostered by various rural stakeholders, from producers up to public authorities including the agro-business sector. Products' certification is based upon consumers' faith and their enthusiasm for safe authentic natural products, praised for their reputation and non-market values. As to countries on the South Mediterranean shore, current public political strategies working for the eradication of poverty and resisting biodiversity depletion, wish to use geographical indications (GI) as true sustainable development tools in peripheral areas. Within the "Green Morocco" policies, public authorities attempt to reconcile natural environment, cultural identity preservation and the well being of local populations. The move towards Argan oil valorisation which began at end of the 1990s, following multiple public and private stakeholders interventions, is positioned in a patrimony manufacturing logic, initially endogenous and now primarily exogenous. Recent research studies show that the Argan oil trade economical windfall profits are at best minimal for the regional populations. Argan oil exploitation major profits share, doesn't remain in the production area but is benefiting downstream business entities. Trying to reverse that trend, January 2010 "Argane" GI creation constitutes, so far, the last of this argan regional patrimonial heritage effort avatar. What are Argan based products certification effects upon establishing the territorial basis for the entitlement of a GI as well as on local sustainable development?