FROM FACTORY BACK TO THE FIELD

Khadir is the youngest Canaan producer in the village of Nus Ijbail. Born in 1982, Khadir is only 28 and has already gained the trust and admiration of everyone in his village for being an industrious farmer. As Khadir likes to emphasize: “If I don’t sweat, I don’t feel like I worked.” Indeed, he is no stranger to hard work; since he was merely a teenager Khadir was already working 12-16 hour days in plastic factories. He would leave the village for weeks and sleep in the factory where he worked. After ten years he decided that it’s time to move back home.

Despite the fact that he was not big on farming at that time, his father convinced him to help in the olive harvest that year. After experiencing one season, Khadir decided that he could do more than just collecting olives. In his first season with Canaan Palestine, Khadir managed to save enough money to buy a tractor, which created another season of work for him because he was able to offer services to the village farmers. From plowing their lands, delivering manure to their trees, to harvesting their crops, Khadir’s fingerprints are in every piece of land in his small community of 350 inhabitants.

He makes it a point to help each farmer the best way he can because, he says “Our village is very small, most young people have left and the farmers that are still here are mostly older folks. I have to help. I profit for sure but my village is also my family. In harvest season we all help each other. My father, my friends, my wife, there are always more people ready to help than not.”