Enterprising Emirati women who set up their own food businesses from home have been left to count the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic after suffering a slump in sales.
The group of traders, who used their flair in the kitchen to bolster their income, relied on exhibitions and fairs to sell their home-crafted culinary creations before the onset of the outbreak brought such public events to a temporary halt.
Welfare associations across the country have been trying to support low-income families through online courses on how to promote their products and through facilitating licensing discounts or exemptions.
These efforts aim to lift the affected businesses and give them fresh impetus.
Ayesha Al Qaydi, a divorced Emirati mother-of-seven, said that she had used exhibitions and food fairs to sell her homemade Emirati traditional dishes before the pandemic.
“I started my business in 2017 and participated in many events across the country and abroad such as Oman,” said Ms Al Qaydi, 43, from Kalba in Sharjah.
“People get to know me and try my home-made food at food fairs and exhibitions but now, with the coronavirus outbreak, all events have been cancelled until further notice."
Ms Al Qaydi started her food business to help cover her expenses after all of her children got married and left the family home.
“I am unemployed and I live on the government monthly social support so I had to find another source of income to cover my expenses,” she said.
Ms Al Qaydi used to prepare three to four large cooking pots daily and sell them to customers.
She said that the some of the most in-demand dishes were harees – made from boiled, cracked, or coarsely-ground wheat mixed with meat or chicken and slow-cooked, Aaysh – spiced rice with chicken or meat, khabees – a sweet dish made of brown flour, rose water, sugar, saffron and Luqaimat - a deep-fried dough soaked in date syrup.
“Now I don’t cook much and only when neighbours or family members ask for specific dishes,” she said.
“Many people stopped ordering food since March, after the spread of the virus, and that has affected my income and all that I can do now is wait until the virus is gone.”
Another unemployed Emirati mother-of-four, who also runs a food business from home, said that the pandemic affected her sales.
“The food packaging costs have doubled since the virus outbreak - the small box used to be sold at Dh3.5 and now it is Dh6.5,” said Maryam Al Shamsi, 45-year-old Emirati widower from Fujairah.
Ms Al Shamsi started selling sweets and cakes in 2012 after attending many cake baking and sweets preparing courses.
“Cake baking is one of my favourite hobbies which I decided to turn into a small business,” she said.
“My sales mainly rely on public events and people celebrating special occasions so I can say that the past four months were not the best.
“I still receive orders but not in the same quantities as before due to social distancing and gatherings restrictions.”
Maryam Al Kaabi, from Al Ain, said that her husband's retirement pension does not cover the family expenses so she had to open a home business.
“I started selling Arabic spices three years ago to support my family,” said Ms Al Kaabi, a 40-year-old mother of six.
“I usually sell the spices and gain new customers through food fairs and low-income families’ exhibitions but now my business has stopped and that has affected our income.”
Ms Al Kaabi said that she used to make between Dh2,500 to Dh3,500 at each event but now her family has only her husband's pension to fall back on.
“I am pregnant and my children still study at school and one is in the university so I need to keep running my business to support the family but this will not happen now,” she said.
But welfare associations across the country are ready to step in to support those most affected.
“We organise online training courses for home business owners on how to manage their business and promote it online during the current situation,” said Shaikha Al Sabousi, events organiser at Dubai Women’s Association's Al Lisaili branch.
“We are always available to provide advice to them on anything related to their business.”
Fatima Salem, head of the productive families section at Fujairah welfare association, said that the association provides licensing discounts or exemptions to low-income families depending on their situation.
“Besides the licensing facilitation we also provide some unemployed mothers with fabric to stitch them into clothes and we sell them to other institutions,” said Ms Salem.
THE%20HOLDOVERS
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Hobby: Playing piano and drawing patterns
Best book: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Food of choice: Sushi
Favourite colour: Orange
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Places to go for free coffee
- Cherish Cafe Dubai, Dubai Investment Park, are giving away free coffees all day.
- La Terrace, Four Points by Sheraton Bur Dubai, are serving their first 50 guests one coffee and four bite-sized cakes
- Wild & The Moon will be giving away a free espresso with every purchase on International Coffee Day
- Orange Wheels welcome parents are to sit, relax and enjoy goodies at ‘Café O’ along with a free coffee
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
More on Quran memorisation:
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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BRIEF SCORES:
Toss: Nepal, chose to field
UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23
Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17
Result: UAE won by 21 runs
Series: UAE lead 1-0
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
RESULT
West Brom 2 Liverpool 2
West Brom: Livermore (79'), Rondón (88' )
Liverpool: Ings (4'), Salah (72')
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
Games on BeIN Sports
