The Story of Olive and Date on Al-Babedi St

Stories of Success and Resilience

Mirvat has been involved with the Urban Women Agripreneurs Forum (UWAF) since its establishment over three years ago. Alongside her work with UWAF, Mirvat and her business partner, Duaa AL-Rayes, run Olive and Date in Al-Babedi Street, Gaza City. Olive and Date started in 2017 and has a focus on creating employment opportunities for young female university graduates who may find it hard to find employment opportunities otherwise.

When describing Olive and Date to us, Mirvat emphasises how proud she is of her enterprise, 

“Despite many challenges, we’ve succeeded in building a well-known enterprise that is financially viable, and we have managed to secure a place to operate from, both for production and sales. We also own agricultural land which we grow a range of vegetables on”.

The enterprise produces a range of preserves, pickles and fermented foods, ajwah (date paste), maftool (pearl couscous), pomegranate molases, grape molases, date molases, apple cider vinegar, zaatar, dukkha and a variety of other products.  All of their products are free from chemical preservatives and are made of 100% natural ingredients. 

Mirvat stressed how important it has been to find connection through food and agricultural work in Gaza, especially as a woman in the industry. Looking towards the future of the enterprise Mirvat says, “I hope to be able to produce and sell products across the Gaza Strip, West Bank and outside of Palestine too”. 

Mirvat shares with us that being a part of UWAF has been an invaluable influence and experience. “The forum has had a positive impact in strengthening the resilience of women agripreneurs and their enterprises, especially through expanding their customer base, marketing, and networking with other forum members. It has been really positive in terms of developing our businesses, as well as our products, and strengthening our resilience both professionally and as a community”, she reveals. 

Mirvat’s priorities are diverse, some being to recruit more employees in order to expand production, strengthening her managerial skills, and seeking further financial investments. Mirvat additionally highlights the need to purchase raw materials, and other inputs to save energy, and lastly to become more efficient and invest in the use of renewable energy. These are crucial investments to make as Mirvat plans to launch new products and further improve current products with appropriate packaging and labelling.

Mirvat ends with a message of confidence,

This campaign will have a positive impact in strengthening the resilience of women agripreneurs through promoting our businesses, marketing our products and supporting the continuous development of our projects.

To help support Mirvat realise her aspirations for Olive & Date's expansion, to reach consumers and households all over Palestine, you can donate to the gofundme campaign.