The Story of Argan Oil

A tree that grows almost nowhere else

The argan tree (Argania spinosa) is endemic to a specific pocket of southwestern Morocco — the Souss valley and the hills around Essaouira, Agadir and Taroudant. Gnarled, thorny and extraordinarily drought-tolerant, it can live for centuries and holds the region's thin soil together against erosion. Because of its rarity and ecological importance, the argan forest was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1998, and the tree is now legally protected.

The tourist-famous image of goats climbing argan trees to eat the fruit is real, but it is not how commercial culinary oil is made today — hygiene standards mean oil sold for eating comes from nuts collected from the ground and cracked separately, not from fruit passed through a goat.

From hard nut to oil: a genuinely laborious process

Inside the argan fruit's tough flesh sits an even tougher nut, and inside that, a small kernel — the only part that yields oil. Cracking the nut between two stones to free the kernel is still done almost entirely by hand, one nut at a time, a task historically and still overwhelmingly carried out by women. It takes hours of work to produce a modest amount of kernels, which is the main reason genuine argan oil is expensive relative to other cooking oils.

• Culinary oil: kernels are lightly roasted before pressing, giving a nutty, amber, toasted-almond flavour.
• Cosmetic oil: kernels are pressed raw, unroasted, giving a lighter oil with almost no scent — meant for skin and hair, not eating.
• Pressing: traditionally by hand with a stone mill, though many cooperatives now use small mechanical presses to increase output while keeping the process otherwise unchanged.

The women's cooperatives

Much of Morocco's argan oil production runs through women's cooperatives in the Souss region, set up over the past few decades partly to formalise fair pay and steady income for a task long done informally at home. These cooperatives handle cracking, roasting, pressing and bottling collectively, and many operate on fair-trade principles, reinvesting income into the community. Buying from a known cooperative, rather than an unmarked roadside stop, is both the ethical choice and the more reliable one for authenticity.

Spotting the real thing

Because argan oil commands a premium, dilution and outright fakes are common, especially around tourist routes where 'demonstration' stops sometimes sell blended or synthetic oil at inflated prices. Genuine culinary argan oil has a distinct roasted, nutty aroma; cosmetic oil is much lighter and near-odourless. Price is a signal — oil priced far below the norm for the volume is unlikely to be pure. Buying through a reputable cooperative, a spice souk stall you trust, or a shop that clearly states cracking region and cooperative name is the safest route. For how the oil is used at the table, see our guide to olive oil and argan oil in Morocco.