Mervat Fares and Asmaa Samir, both co-founders of flourishing productive cooperatives in agrifood in Beni Suef Governorate, smile as they talk about the success they have achieved. But both have had to overcome many challenges along the road to this success.

“With the ever-increasing prices, I found myself responsible for providing additional income for my family to meet their needs. I was not allowed to go out to work in a factory under the supervision of a man, and I did not have the capital or experience to start my own project,” says Asmaa, the current deputy head of Min Khirha cooperative. Her sentiments are echoed by Mervat, the current treasurer of Nigmet El-Zaytoun cooperative.

“It was very challenging to work outside the village. Husbands would not allow their wives leave the village to work. Parents and brothers would also refuse, especially if a woman needed to take public transport early in the morning. These things are not socially acceptable.”

 

Gender inequality is a major challenge for women working in agribusiness in Egypt. Women working in this sector struggle to become successful agribusiness entrepreneurs; due to factors such as limited skills and experience, social norms which limit a woman’s financial independence, and limited access to childcare services, women often lack control over their own assets, time, and access to training and finance, and struggle to gain access to business networks.

To respond to these challenges, the Opportunities for Women in Agribusiness Project (OWAP) is working to enhance female employment and entrepreneurship in agribusiness in the governorates of Minya and Beni Suef through increasing women’s access to growth-oriented agribusiness opportunities as leaders and members of productive cooperatives in agri-food. This initiative is a part of OWAP’s wider aim to empower women to set up, own, control, and operate environmentally sustainable agribusinesses, work collaboratively, and mobilize their local communities.

With OWAP’s support of the cooperative model in the two governorates, groups of women have now officially registered three agrifood productive cooperatives – two in Beni Suef Governorate and one in Minya Governorate:

• Thamara, a women-led cooperative producing dried grapes and vine leaves in the village of Kom El-Mahras Minya Governorate;
• Min Khirha, a women-led cooperative sorting, processing, and grading fruit and vegetables in the village of El-Maymoun in Beni Seuf Governorate; and
• Nigmet El-Zaytoun, a women-led cooperatie processing and packing fresh and dried vegetables in the village of El-Zaytoun in Beni Suef Governorate.

OWAP sees the cooperative model as a viable and sustainable means to achieve Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE), as it is a way to change the lives of women stuck in the rut of the low-paid jobs in agribusiness they are generally offered due to their limited skills and experience. Initially, OWAP worked with the target communities in Beni Suef and Minya Governorates on women’s agribusiness entrepreneurship, providing WEE entrepreneurship training programs for them, but during these programs it became apparent that due to a lack of skills and business knowledge, women were unable to start businesses on their own. Discussions with the trainees about this situation inspired OWAP to introduce them to the cooperative model.

In Beni Suef and Minya Governorates, 20 out of the hundreds of trainees who attended the WEE entrepreneurship training programs decided to go out and promote the cooperative model among other women in their villages. Women were motivated by the idea of working collectively and gaining control over their own assets, and gaining the ability to generate better incomes while simultaneously balancing their working lives with their responsibilities at home, maintaining personal safety, successfully negotiating the challenges presented by social norms, and also maintaining government-run social benefit schemes such as the Takaful and Karama cash transfer program and the state pension.

In Beni Suef Governorate, 25 women got together to form Min Khirha, while the same number of women founded Nigmet El-Zaytoun. Both cooperatives were registered in May 2024.

“When I was introduced to the cooperative by OWAP, I promoted the idea among women in my village. They were willing to join as members in the cooperatives. This was the first time I had ever made my own decisions. I feel empowered now I know more about my own potential and the opportunities I have. I will open doors for other women in my village to help them earn the money the need to gain their independence, and for a life that is better lived,” says Rasha Gonidy from Min Khirha

In Minya Governorate meanwhile, a group of 20 women founded Thamara, which was also registered in May 2024. With OWAP’s support, Thamara was provided with vocational training on how to start producing dried grapes and vine leaves. Raouth Gamal was selected by her colleagues to register the cooperative, as her reading, writing, and arithmetic skills were excellent.

“Before this, I had never left my village. It was my first time to go to Minya city and to see Cairo. I went with two friends, and we supported each other during our mission to submit our documents to officially register our cooperative,” Raouth recalls.

Since the cooperatives were founded, OWAP has provided capacity-building programs for women in the two governorates on all aspects of running a productive cooperative. These included training programs on how to set up, register, run, and source means of finance for cooperatives, including advice on the challenges involved in such ventures; vocational training on food processing, occupational health and safety, and food hygiene; transportation and food allowances for participants in the training programs; and links to the agri-food business sector.

For the women who run the three cooperatives, their work is more than a seasonal job opportunity; it is a communal effort to overcome social and financial restraints, and is also one which they financed themselves. Believing in what they can do for themselves and other women in their communities, all members of the newly-formed cooperatives agreed to save half of the transportation and food allowances they were receiving from the OWAP capacity-building programs they were participating in. The members of Nigmet El-Zaytoun and Min Khirha then used their savings to rent plots of land which had some empty buildings on them, and, supported by other community-based WEE organizations and Olam Food Ingredients (ofi), a leading private-sector international food manufacturer, prepared these plots as production units. Meanwhile, the members of Thamara used their pooled finances to rent an open area for use as a solar drying space and production unit for the dried grapes, vine leaves, and herbs and spices they wanted to produce.

The successful link with the private sector that OWAP created for Min Khirha and Nigmet El-Zaytoun with the support offered to them by ofi has continued. In July 2024, the two cooperatives signed contracts with ofi to process the white onions that are planted exclusively for the company. In August 2024, ofi delivered the onions to the cooperatives’ production units, where the peeling process will take place. To ensure product quality and hygiene and safety standards in the workplace are maintained, and to minimize loss, ofi has provided extensive training to the women of both cooperatives on the handling and peeling process. It has also provided them with tools, including gloves and knives.

In August 2024, OWAP also linked Thamara to a major private distributor in Egypt, which supported the distribution of Thamara’s products. To date, Thamara has produced 2 tons of dried grapes, and will shortly produce 1 ton of vine leaves, which together will bring the cooperative a sizeable profit in their first year of production.

The control over their own lives within the social norms of their communities that the cooperatives have brought to women has had a dramatic positive effect on their self-esteem.

“I was worthless, this was how I felt and how people made me feel,” says Shaimaa Siddiq from Nigmet El-Zaytoun. “I was always working inside and outside the house, serving my husband’s big family, and yet had no control over my own house, or my own time,” she explains.

“Now, I am enjoying working in the cooperative among women like me. It is a relief to work in a place where all of us are women who know each other. I am no longer a mere worker, but an owner of a collaborative business. I know my own value, and people are treating me better,” she says.

And the pride in their achievements, and the drive to do more and help more and more women change their own lives, is evident whenever the women from the cooperatives talk about their work.

“When I wake up every day to go to the production unit, I smile to myself, and feel so proud of my achievement. I am really keen to turn the cooperative into a big factory,” says Mervat Fares from Nigmet El-Zaytoun. “I am braver than I believed, and stronger than I thought,” she adds.

 

And Asmaa Makhlouf from Thamara is equally ambitious: “I have a big dream, which sometimes scares people around me, challenging them and myself,” she says. “I have been supporting my children financially since getting divorced. I was feeling broken, but joining the cooperative has made me feel strong again.”

 

Since it was founded, Min Khirha has employed 70 more women, bringing the total number of members in the cooperative to 95. But Asmaa Samir is confident she can improve on this already impressive figure.

“The registration of the cooperative is a life-changing move,” she says. “I can now provide job opportunities for 25 percent of the women in my village.”

The successes of the women who run the three cooperatives demonstrate the transformative effect the cooperative model has had, not only on their own lives, but also the lives of many other women and, by extension, whole families in their communities. And with OWAP committed to continuing its support to women-led productive cooperatives in agrifood, linking them with more market opportunities, enhancing their management and vocational capacities, and providing them with equipment and tools to enable them to grow and expand, successes such as these are set to continue.

 

Written and edited by: Rowyda Omar and Daniel Rolph.

For more information, please contact Rowyda Omar at Rowydao@Alineainternational.com