Blackberry Farms - Bara' Najajrah

Bara’ Najajrah an agronomist from Nahaleen in Bethlehem, works with his family to cultivate wild berries specifically red, blue and black berries for local consumption. With extensive experience working in Israeli farms Bara’ seeks to utilize his knowledge and skills to cultivate and market a variety of wild berry crops to be sold in local grocers as well as bakeries. Bara explains, “There are so many berry bushes scattered throughout the hills of Bethlehem but they are not cultivated and go for waste, instead of importing berries we can cultivate our own.”

Currently the Palestinian market relies on importing berries mainly from Israeli sources which is costly and not accessible to all Palestinians. As a result, Bara’ seeks to utilize local resources such as unused family land to cultivate competitively priced sustainably sourced red, blue and black berries which has the potential to capture the market and meet the needs of local Palestinians. However, there remains a lack of awareness and incentive as local producers do not put enough focus on locally sourced goods, “There is great potential to develop this market and provide local and competitive alternatives that will not only see to the needs of consumers but contribute to the livelihoods of struggling farmers that are being pushed out of their fields.” 

Bara’ is actively working to support local Palestinian industry and spread awareness through social media to bring to the forefront the necessity of supporting Palestinian farmers and locally sourced goods. In addition, Bara’ continues to learn about market needs to strategically introduce his product as a competitive alternative that supports local Palestinian industry. 

With proper support and funding Bara’ will be able to establish his own berry farm equipped with an irrigation system, saplings and packing supplies to not only produce and market berries but to sell saplings to other interested farmers. Bara’s explains, “Of course I want to become financially independent and contribute to the well-being of my family but I also want to do more than that.” He continues “I want to support Palestinian agriculture and industry by expanding the berry market that will employ many Palestinians at different levels of production and sales.”