Jericho, Occupied West Bank - Tucked away amid the palm trees in one of the world's oldest cities, an unadorned white warehouse sits on a dusty plot of land. Inside, air conditioners hum as workers hover over elevated beds of dirt.

They methodically pick out the pearly white domes peeking out from the compost as a strip of neon lights shines overhead. When their work is done, the first locally produced mushrooms in Palestine will be packaged and shipped to Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, Bethlehem and other cities across the West Bank.

The Amoro farm was formed three years ago by four young Palestinians who noted the absence of local mushroom production in the Palestinian market, which is saturated with Israeli goods.

The group of friends had no agricultural background - their studies focused on IT, web development and business - but they researched mushroom-growing techniques and enrolled in classes in Europe on how to cultivate the organic, white fungi.

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