A pioneering healthy basket endeavor by a woman from Tripoli

Al Akhbar daily published a feature about a passionate woman entrepreneur from Tripoli who emigrated to Canada and returned to realize  her dream of a ‘wholesome bread’ corner in her hometown. Three years ago, Soumaya Merhi opened a small bakery in the northern capital and called it the ‘bread basket’ which showcases a variety of nutritious, additive free, organic and high quality breads and sweets. The products, the newspaper noted, are available in 20 points of sale across the Lebanese territory and are exported abroad. Merhi began marketing her delicacies solo, where she drove from one region to another, visiting hypermarkets, restaurants and bakeries to display her different creations. Later on, she launched her website http://www.breadbasketsquare.com/, to market online, and recently expanded her initiative reaching Erbil and Dubai. To keep up with the increasing demand on her products, Soumaya resorted to ‘Kafalat’ company for SME loans to get a modern machine that allows her to make in two days what she manually makes in a week’s time. According to Al Akhbar, Merhi presently sells US$26 thousand worth of products per month and is expecting her annual sales for the year 2016 to reach between US$ 500 thousand to 750 thousand. (Al Akhbar, November 4, 2015)