The Business of Fake Argan Oil

With the popularity of our article: “7 warning signs that your Argan Oil is Impure”, I decided to add some more interesting truths about the argan oil industry. While its popularity is growing around the world, it seems the majority of what you find is fake argan oil. Here are some suprising truths that you may not know about this liquid gold and the industry itself.

      Fake argan oil is everywhere! It takes approximately 30kg of argan fruit to produce 1 litre of argan oil. Trees are harvested only once per year. A healthy argan tree with proper water and soil can produce anywhere from 10kg-150kg of fruit per year. This means for each tree, there is approximately 0.3 litres- 5 litres of oil produced per year. There simply are not enough trees to produce the amount of “argan oil” that is exported from Morocco every year. It has to be mixed with other oils in order to make it possible.

      Even in Morocco, the nice shop owner will try to sell you fake argan oil. Because sunflower oil is so cheap and common in Morocco, a lot of argan oil is mixed with it. Olive oil is another common substitute. It looks and feels similar. But it is not the same! Unfortunately, it is getting harder and harder to find the real stuff.

      Argan oil is amazing because of its healing properties. And while any oil in the hair or on the skin can provide some minor benefits, nothing compares to pure argan oil. So when consumers are buying “pure argan oil” and receiving sunflower oil, they are not finding the results they expected and believe that argan oil is nothing special.  So they never try to investigate another brand that actually might be authentic hence giving them the results they desire.

      The conditions of many co-ops are very dirty. Yet they proudly display organic certification. Because of this, the world trusts the brand and often ends up with subpar argan oil. It is important to note that most, if not all, argan oil is actually organic. There are no pesticides used on the trees, they are not fertilized, and they are not genetically modified. Only goats are interested in eating the fruits off the trees, so farmers do not waste money on pesticides for the trees. Also argan trees grow much like weeds: the seeds fall and they grow on their own.  It just takes a very long time for them to produce fruit. But no fertilizer is ever necessary.