DailyStar Article:
(Wed, March 3,1999 - P.7)
Sisters make jam their preserve
by: Kirsten Vance

Youmna Ghoraieb thought there was a business opportunity in selling traditional preserves and jams to the local market that few Lebanese had time to make at home. "Something we believed in very strongly is traditional Lebanese food that would have been lost if no one had taken the care to preserve it," says Mrs. Ghoraieb, who launched Mymoune along with her sister, Leila Maalouf."All our products are hand-made and require a lot of skill." The owners of Mymoune say their products are all 100-percent natural with as much as a 75-percent fruit content. "When we began it was syrup time. It was the spring so we started making rose syrup," says Mrs. Ghoraieb." After that we went on to different kinds of jams."

Such Lebanese delicacies as fig jam, pomegranate molasses, rose waterand mulberry syrup followed, retailing for between about LL3,000 and LL17,000.The most popular lines are orange blossom water, dates and fig jam. All fruit ­ about 100,000 kilograms last year ­ is purchased from local farms. Mrs. Ghoraieb and her sister launched the company in 1989 ­ their children had grown up and the war in Lebanon was coming to an end. Times were not easy, but a few lucky turns and a dash of perseverance helpedthem get their project off the ground. Mrs. Ghoraieb said the start-up was financed by a small line of credit received from a banker friend, despite his skepticism that the two sisters could be successful. "He thought the idea was very romantic, but he wanted to be sure," she says. "So we did get a very small amount of money, and we had to work very hard."

Mymoune currently sells 25 different products. Each is produced in quantities of about 8,000­12,000 kilograms, and the owners try to produce only what can be sold in a particular year. The company has about 20 permanent employees with that figure swelling to between 30 and 35 at peak season. Mymoune has one retail outlet in Antelias but it is used largely as a showroom. Products are mostly sold through grocery stores such as Embassy, Metro and Abela's. Declining to give sales figures, Mrs. Ghoraieb said that 1998 saw a40-percent increase in sales over the previous year.

The jams and preserves of Mymoune have begun to attract attention outside Lebanon. An article entitled "Savoring Peace" in the March edition of Food & Wine features a foreigner returning to Lebanon in search of the old cuisine. One of the gems unearthed by the writer was Mymoune. Exports, however, still account for just a small portion of Mymoune'sbusiness, but the firm has found some customers in Arab countries, France,the United States and Britain The name Mymoune was chosen because moune refers to the winter provisions prepared during the summer months, while mymoune is the feminine form ofthe Arabic word meaning "blessed by God."

Production was set up in their parent's home in the village of Ain al-Kabou, situated on the slopes of Mt. Sannine. The small house in thegarden, which had been used by their grandmother for the labor-intensive cooking, was standing idle and used only for storage. The garden house turned out to have a cache of tools that proved very useful, including an alembic used for distilling.

Though Mrs. Ghoraieb and her sister both had experience making preserves for their families, neither knew what was required to make large quantities for resale. For this they turned to an uncle who was a nutritionist trained inthe United States. "This was our first big stroke of luck," says Mrs. Ghoraieb. "Our uncle was there and he was willing to help us." He taught them the proper methods of cleaning and pasteurization without using any chemicals. Mymoune prides itself in offering products that are100-percent natural with no artificial flavor or coloring.

They hired locals to help make the jams and, at the outset, the labels were hand-drawn by children assembled around the dining room table. As business expanded, Mrs. Ghoraieb employed a printing press to make the labels and subsequently annexed their parents' garage, which was turned into a refrigerator. "Our mother is very cooperative, even though we have squatted in her house," says Mrs. Ghoraieb with a wry laugh. The two sisters' dynamic is built on a sense of cooperation. "We have a good mixture of respect and affection which enables us to go forward, "Mrs. Ghoraieb says. So what are the plans for Mymoune? "To get bigger and bigger and bigger," answers Mrs. Ghoraieb, as her sister chimes in: "To get as big as we canwhile safeguarding quality."