Date bites – Economy of Love

Traceback your Product

and explore your

impact on people

& the environment

Creating a

FAIR ECONOMY

$ 12,326

are invested in supporting the small farmers of EoL in carbon sequestration and avoidance practices.

Creating a

FAIR SOCIETY

100%

of full-time employees in Sekem who worked to produce this product receive health insurance and safe working conditions.

Life Long Learning &

WELLBEING

10%

of the working time in Sekem is dedicated to art and self-development activities; to promote wellbeing and happiness at work.

Protecting the

ENVIRONMENT

100%

of the people who worked to produce this product throughout the supply chain receive ecological awareness trainings.

Farming

Coconut, hibiscus, oranges, cinnamon, sesame peanuts and chocolates are the added ingredients to the date bites. Some of the ingredients like the coconut, chocolate, and cinnamon are sourced from Sri Lanka and Mexico. The dates are grown in Egypt on Demeter and Economy of Love certified farms. Check out the map to see where each ingredient is sourced from.

The dates and the locally grown added ingredients are cultivated using the highest form of organic agriculture called biodynamic, supporting the balance of eco-systems and enriching biodiversity.

The coconut and cinnamon imported from Sri Lanka and the chocolate imported from Mexico are not Demeter certified, however the coconut and cinnamon do not exceed 5% of the product, and the chocolates make up to 7.5% of the date bites.

With the EoL Carbon Credits adding an additional income to the farmer, EoL is aiming to make biodynamic agriculture the mainstream method in Egypt, by reducing the price of biodynamic products.

Meet The Farmers

get to the source of production

Reda

Farmer in Minia, Egypt

Our young farmer Reda has his own Demeter-certified farmland in Minya called El-Rouby Farm. Reda has a dream to live a simple happy life growing his business to provide more job opportunities for his people.

Waleed

Farmer in Wahat Oasis, Egypt

Waleed is an agriculture engineer in Wahat SEKEM. His children study at SEKEM school, also his wife teaches Arabic there. They are living a wonderful new experience surrounded by calming beautiful places. He’s a hard worker farmer trying to cover all the herbs needed in the market.

Processing

When the dates arrive at the iSiS Organic Food Company, samples are taken to be tested to ensure the organic and biodynamic standards are met. Then the dates are cleaned and quality checked. The date stones are removed by hand then the dates are minced mixing in the different flavors.

iSiS was able to reduce 77% of its no-organic waste as well as reducing 25% of its organic waste. iSiS tries to reduce as much waste as possible, the rest of the recyclable non-organic waste is sold to external recycling entities.

The date stones are collected and sent to the compost site on the Sekem Farm to be turned into Animal feed and compost.

iSiS employees are part of the core program Sekem offers, which includes art, music and environmental awareness sessions.

Packaging

The minced dates are transferred to a machines to cut them in small equal parts and the date ladies start shaping them into into mini bites shape (as for the chocolate and peanuts covered date bites, the ingredients are added after they’re shaped into balls). Then the date bites are arranged neatly into the boxes and they’re ready to go.

The dates department in iSiS factory consist of a team called “The date ladies” who pit and organize each individual date with careful hands.

When entering the dates department in iSiS, you will find confident and active women all around you. The factory makes sure to offer women empowerment sessions that build their capacity and teach them how to voice their needs and individuality.

As part of Sekem holding , the world bank and UN women has granted iSiS the “One Business Community, Equal Opportunity Seal” for their efforts in supporting women and ensuring equality

Packaging Material

The Dates could be responsibly grown and processed, but its packaging material and the companies from which they are sourced do also have a huge impact on the products’ lifetime, and cannot be neglected.

The boxes are made of paper which is produced in a factory in Cairo that promotes worker safety and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

The paper tag and filter fibers are FSC certified sourced from German companies that are constantly researching sustainable packaging alternatives, and sustainable production practices.

During the processing of the dates they are kept in these blue polyethylene bags that are recyclable. iSiS factory sells their non-organic waste left from the processing stage to external recycling entities in Egypt.

Distribution

The date bites packages are now ready to be distributed directly to your home, local shops, or overseas.

iSiS always opts for sea freight and only makes the decision to use air freight on the rare occasion that a client orders a small amount that can not be transported by sea.

Drivers have a limit on the number of hours they can drive per day, to ensure their safety

The company’s transportation emissions are calculated and monitored to actively work on finding ways to reduce the emissions and then offsetting the rest that can’t be helped. Check out iSiS’s assigned credits.

Meet The Employees

have a look, who processed, packaged and distributed your product

Marwa

Quality Manager in iSiS

Marwa has been working in the the iSiS factory for more than 8 years. Together with her husband and two children, she lives on the SEKEM farm.

Fatma

Date Ladies, Team Leader

Fatma is part of the team that removes the date-stones in the processing facility of iSiS. She has been working for nine years in the company.

Yasmin

Dates Packaging, Team Leader

Yasmin is in charge of the packaging of Dates in the processing facility of iSiS. She has been working in iSiS for six years and enjoys the good and healthy team spirit.

Abd El Magid

Distributor in SEKEM

Abd El Magid has been an employee in SEKEM for over 15 years. He is responsible for distributing the finished products to stores all over Cairo.

What is the True Price?

Are there hidden costs that the price doesn't reflect?

True Price Comparision

Sustainably & ethically produced products add value to society. However, when comparing prices, we don’t take into account the long-term impact of the product. For example, since these Dates are sequestering Co2e it is actually saving up to 0.14USD per kilo! This means that it is cheaper than products that emit Co2e, but so often the price tag doesn’t reflect that.

We encourage you to compare products based on their true price; the price that reflects the hidden costs that we and future generations eventually pay for.

This cultivation of Dates saves up to 0.25 USD/Kilo, by sequestering carbon into the soil.

Indirect Costs include:

WATER

REPROCESSING COST

Society is paying taxes to clean water sources from agriculture’s chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, as well as the irresponsible disposal of wastewater from factories, in order to make it usable/drinkable water.

HEALTH COSTS

The use of pesticides in agriculture eventually affects the human body and therefore increases medical treatment costs.

ENVIRONMENTAL

DAMAGE

Society has to bear the long-term cost caused by disruptive agriculture e.g. soil erosion, desertification, and loss of biodiversity.

Locations

Check out the locations of all the farms, companies who were involved in making this product!

discover the origin of your product

Mandisha

Dates

Peanuts

Hibiscus