The Targanine Group’s founding cooperatives are located in remote, sometimes even landlocked areas. This geographical remoteness and the lack of product marketing expertise within these cooperatives gave rise to the idea of a grouping that would federate the 6 units, pool their strengths and centralize the marketing of their products both locally and internationally. Creating the GIE was anything but easy.

There were socio-cultural obstacles to overcome, such as those posed by the patriarchal nature of society in those remote Berber villages, where it is almost systematically necessary to go through the spouse or father, who must endorse any step taken by the wife or daughter. It was therefore essential to raise awareness upstream, especially as the members of these cooperatives are illiterate and have few financial resources, not to mention a digital divide that makes contact with the outside world impossible. The GIE, the first of its kind in the Souss Massa region, was therefore founded in 2003, and to date encompasses 6 cooperatives and 65 employees, including technicians, quality managers and assistants, cleaning operators and administrative managers.