Have you ever stood, looking on in awe at how well goats can climb trees?..Er, neither have I but if we where in Morocco it wouldn’t be a weird thing to witness..
The Goats climb the Argania tree, a rare and protected species, to get to the precious fruit.
An Argania tree never grow more than 10 meters high and can live up to 200 years. It produces an annual crop of fruit, so it takes up to a year for the seeds to mature, which explains why the seeds are so valuable – So what's so special about these seeds? I’ll explain in a bit..
The local farmers cultivate this bizarre feeding practice because it’s also an important part of the economy in this lower-middle income country. They keep the goats away from the forest of Argania trees until the fruit matures and only release the goats when the fruit is ripe.
Ripe Argan fruit
There is a good reason the locals farm the Argan seeds this way. It has to do with a beauty product most of us has used one time or another.
After the goats eat the fruit, they disperse (by spitting and pooping) valuable seeds, roughly the size of an acorn, which are then pressed to create the much sought-after Argan oil! Argan oil is valued in beauty and foodie circles and by some reports the oil exports bring in an estimate $6.5 million, which is a much-needed economic injection into the country.
The Argan fruit is oval shaped and more or less the size of an acorn. The fruit has a thick peel that covers a green, fleshy pulp. The pulp surrounds an extremely hard shell that preserves up to three, almond shaped kernels. It’s these precious kernels that are used for pressing Argan oil.
There is also a downside to this practice – with the Argain oil being so popular, there is a lucrative profit to be made, so more and more farmers are arriving with their goats, causing a decline in the precious remaining Argan tree forest. Years of over farming and clear-cutting has unfortunately, put the tree on the endangered list.
As goats disperse the seeds, more trees grow but the more goats arrive, the more baby trees are eaten so everything is working into a negative. An equilibrium needs to be created between the number of goats to trees to keep a healthy balance.
There are some scammers that tie goats to the trees all day in the hot sun, hoping to elicit money from unsuspecting tourist trying to get a picture. Please don’t support these criminals –help send the message that animal cruelty doesn’t pay.
