Niche Commodities and Rural Poverty Alleviation: Contextualizing the Contribution of Argan Oil to Rural Livelihoods in Morocco

Integration of many remote regions into the global economy has brought an increasing array of exotic products from rural areas in the developing world to the plates and cupboards of wealthy consumers. This article contributes to the growing literature that looks at the role of global consumers in social and environmental governance. We examine a set of global commodities that, due to their high value, retail at prices well beyond usual agricultural products, giving wealthy consumers great influence over livelihood and land use choices in producer regions. Proponents assert this kind of commercialization will alleviate rural poverty. We identify necessary conditions for this to happen in general and consider the specific case of argan oil, produced in Morocco and sold abroad for prices above US$400 per liter. Using a livelihood approach drawing on geography and related fields, we test the claim that niche commodity trade alleviates poverty in this specific setting. We find that argan oil commercialization has played a relatively minor role in household budgets and asset accumulation, whereas nonfarm work and remittances play a greater role. Our results show the importance of a livelihood approach in contextualizing commodity chains. We conclude that the poverty alleviation effects of niche commodity marketing are context dependent and influenced by agro-ecological conditions, resource scarcity, resource ownership regime, and characteristics of the value chains.