Updates

Women entrepreneurs in Morocco get export ready with quality management

7 June 2022
ITC News

Moroccan women entrepreneurs attend ITC workshop on quality management to improve their products, and thus their export readiness. 

The International Trade Centre’s SheTrades project organized a four-day workshop on quality management for 20 women entrepreneurs from the processed food sector in Morocco from 9 – 12 May 2022. The workshop strengthened the capacities of the participating companies and cooperatives, promoting the development of their products on local markets as well as helping them become export ready.  

Naoual Ennouhi, President of the Flora Cooperative and one of the workshop participants, said: “I improved my knowledge on certification, learned how to set up the company management process to ensure the standardized quality and safety of my products, and I now know how to implement it into the daily management of the cooperative that I chair.”

To ensure tailored advice, the participants were split into two groups based on their level of certification. The first group focused on the regulatory requirements for the quality and safety of their food products; and how to obtain the sanitary authorization and approval needed for export.

The second group focused on how a company’s production process could ensure the standardized quality of their products. The training also covered how the processes could manage all risks related to food quality and safety.

Following the workshop, all participants had the opportunity to evaluate their training experience. The results will be used to guide the next workshop.

About the project

The workshop was organized as part of the International Trade Centre’s SheTrades Morocco project, which seeks to increase the participation of Moroccan women-owned businesses in trade by improving their competitiveness and strengthening their market linkages. The project seeks to enable Moroccan women to benefit from economic participation focusing on processed foods value chains.  

This workshop was organized by ITC and funded by the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation and the Islamic Development Bank.