Equitable Gourmet and Marigold Healthfoods to launch two new exciting products into the UK market.
In our continued effort to develop our market presence, we are proud to introduce our Marigold Pomegranate Ketchup and Pomegranate Molasses, two innovative offers to the UK consumer. The products which were first presented at the Specialty and Fine Food Fair held at the Olympia Grand Hall in September, will be distributed nationally from October of this year.
The Pomegranate Molasses is sourced from our existing producer Joseph Menhem, who was able to provide us with a versatile molasses product, ripe for the taste of the sophisticated developed-market consumer, and the work that we carried out on the Pomegranate Ketchup, a product that Equitable Gourmet conceptualized and developed was particularly exciting and rewarding.
Hallousieh Women’s Cooperative was as our producer of choice for this product. The cooperative had suffered serious setbacks during the summer war in 2006, at which time we were to list 2 of their sun-dried tomato products with our retail partners here in the UK. Unfortunately the village of Hallousieh was targeted during the events of that summer, resulting in damaged crops and the displacement of many of its residents.
Having recently had their production facilities reconstructed by GVC, an Italian NGO with funding from the Italian Cooperation in Lebanon, the cooperative was once again ready to engage in our joint initiative. For Equitable Gourmet, the challenge of working with Hallousieh on their first serious production run since 2006 entailed securing additional support for them from GVC and from our exiting partnership with arcenciel who provided the required technical support and training as well as additional equipment purchases needed by the cooperative an its members.
Most importantly, the commitment, enthusiasm and hard work of the ladies at Hallousieh made it possible for us to meet the challenges of producing this product to specification, and within an exceptionally short period of time.
As well as thanking all of Hallousieh Cooperative’s members for their hard work and high spirits, I would like to take this opportunity to also thank all the people involved in helping to bring this product to market, and specifically Wajdi Khater and George Abi Rizk at arcenciel who put in a lot of time and effort and who dedicated themselves to the success of this initiative from day one.
Read more from UNDP Lebanon document:
www.undp.org.lb/communication/SuccessStories/Successstories&Testimonies.pdf