FAO supports the Women of Deir al-Ahmar Association in producing clean and tasty Freekeh

Freekeh is a cereal food made from unripened wheat that has been roasted and crushed into small pieces. It is mostly and especially used in Middle Eastern cooking.

The wheat is harvested while the grains are still soft green. It is then piled and sun-dried and the piles are carefully set on fire such that only the straw and chaff burn. The grain’s high moisture content prevents them from burning and gets them only roasted while conserving flavor, texture and green color. They are then rubbed, sun-dried and then cracked into smaller pieces to become freekeh, meaning “rubbed” in Arabic.

Women of Deir al-Ahmar Association (WADA) are now able to produce clean and tasty freekeh with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Lebanon, funded by the Government of Canada.

Let us take you on the journey of how it all started…

WADA sought to develop and promote the production of freekeh, as this product has a high nutritional value and economic return as well as an added value for the production of wheat grown by farmers in the fertile lands of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.

The association worked on developing the production chain in several stages and thanks to FAO Lebanon, obtained the necessary equipment for roasting harvested green wheat, moisture extraction, and packaging.

“The drying mechanism is very important to ensure the best quality and safety of the freekeh products which requires a clean and dry place protected from the air and birds to dry the green wheat for a full day before the grilling process” said Dounia El Khoury, Head of WADA association.

WADA association is in fact one of the 255 women groups beneficiaries of the project “Support to women’s cooperatives and associations in the agri-food sector of Lebanon”. Its members were enrolled in one of the Cooperative Business Schools and were provided with extensive capacity building programmes to develop their business plans.

The aim of the WADA Business Plan was to develop and increase the freekeh production volume while improving its quality, safety, and marketability. Today, with the support provided by the Canada-funded project, WADA association has added to its assets a modern glass room used to dry, not only freekeh, but all other types of fruits and vegetables as well.

“The glass room’s location is now close to WADA, which makes it easier for us to work. Before building it, we had to rent a site or a garage to dry and set the freekeh on fire, but with the help of FAO, the whole process became a lot easier. The proximity of the glass room has also made it easier for us to be able to check more often on the product while we would be doing other work in parallel. Also, due to its cleanliness, large space, and natural lighting, we were able to use the glass room to dry other types of vegetables according to the season, which greatly benefited the association”, confirmed Mona Imad, one of WADA association’s members.

On another note, because the Bekaa region in general and Deir al-Ahmar in particular, are very suitable for natural drying during the summer as they are characterized by a dry climate and strong sunlight, this room was able to highly help the association in the process of natural drying, especially after the power outage crisis and the high cost of diesel in Lebanon.  

WADA was not the only rural women group that benefitted from this project. In 2019, FAO Lebanon launched the project entitled "Support to Women’s cooperatives and associations in the agri-food sector of Lebanon", its main aim was (and still is) to empower rural women in Lebanon and improve their livelihoods through capacity building, grants and cash for work.

This project was funded by the Government of Canada and implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Directorate of Cooperatives. It has contributed to building the capacities of 32 facilitators and 255 women groups (cooperatives, associations, and informal groups) by enrolling them in cooperative business schools, where they were provided with a wide range of business and technical related training together with gender and GBV awareness sessions.

After their graduation they were eligible to compete for grants allowing them to buy machines, equipment, solar panel systems and materials, as well as pay for employees and their medical insurance, allowing them to improve their production and their working conditions.  Along the project, they were trained and coached by specialized experts and facilitators.

WADA is only one of the one hundred and fifty women's groups selected to receive cash grants. The grants will enable them to obtain equipment and production inputs to move forward in the production and marketing, with the aim to create sustainable income-generating small-scale projects, to generate job opportunities, and to improve the economic and social conditions of women, their families, and communities.