The inspiring story of Maguy Nassour!

Ras Baalbeck, and its beautiful fields of pomegranates, were the cornerstone of the success story of Maguy Nassour, who was able to turn a small observation into a lucrative and successful business.

 

 Maguy had multiple challenges to face, but she stood up for her dreams and overtook them all, from wars, the economic crisis, lack of fuel, electricity shortages, and, worst of all, the negative voices that always
whispered that she would inevitably fail. 

 

Maguy, being the positive and solution-oriented person that she is, decided to make use of these pomegranate fields, withstand the hardship of creating molasses, and just go for it.

 

She realized that when an item is hard to create, few people are now willing to go the extra mile and do the work, so she decided to make use of her resilience and satisfy this need in the market. Brilliantly though, she was able to create a machine that made it much easier for her to extract the juice from the pomegranates, hence minimizing effort and, most importantly, expediting the process.

 

With her new invention, she can now squeeze 1.5 tons of pomegranate, which caught the eye of her fellow residents and got them standing in line to make use of her service. So, being the entrepreneur that she is, she decided to make this part of her business, and in only 2 months, she was able to squeeze 900 tons of pomegranates!

 

From the money that she raised from this service, she was able to purchase pomegranates for her own use and then converted them and sold over 300 bottles of molasses under the brand of Roummana.

 

Her molasses is 100% natural and is not touched by hand. The process for creating this molasses was clean and fast, which facilitated the sale of the products for 25% cheaper than the other competitors.

 

But that’s not all. Roummana is a sustainable business that, from one end, supports the farmers in town to decrease their waste and then makes use of every feature of the pomegranate, whether using the peal for generating heat in the winter, or using the seeds and the lower quality pomegranates to make vinegar! If you want sustainability, Roummana is the place to get it! 

 

Her success did not come out of the blue, though; it all happened when she attended the Nawaya Network’s ARED training sessions, where she was aided in multiple business development topics like financing, business expansion, outreach, and branding.

 

It was there that the idea came to life, and she was able to incubate this idea into the successful business she has today. The Nawaya Network was able to provide her with a seed fund that allowed her to create her machine through funds provided by the European Union. Then The Nawaya Network supported her by registering her in multiple fairs, where she was able to create more brand recognition and sales!

 

Today Roummana is a business that hosts 10 employees supporting Maguy in her daily operations, and she already implemented plans for growth. She started creating multiple types of vinegar, from apple to pomegranate vinegar, and now has her eyes on growing her portfolio even more towards peach, tomato paste, and even the production of Ketchup!

 

We hope that this story motivates us all first to follow our dreams and second to support other rural entrepreneurs.

 

Are you inspired?

 Check out her Instagram Page @Roummana.lb