A good example of successful Yemeni businesswomen:The queen of orange [Archives:2003/637/Business & Economy]

Mahyoub Al-Kamaly
Haja Amina al-Amrani has gotten a great fame to be the queen of the orange and mango for administrating 30 farms and marketing their products in the local markets and export the superfluous to the neighboring countries.
This businesswoman cannot read and nor write, however, she amazes the people around her about accounting the loss and profits reaching millions so that they imagine that she is academic and computer and numbers specialist.
Haja Amina has started her trade life by sealing corals with small quantities while others were laughing at her. In 1975 she embarked her free business.
She tells her story to the economic press that she has definitely taken a decision in 1982 to change her trade activity into agricultural filed and marketing the products from Haja governorate to the central market in Sana'a.
She says “in spite of objection of people around me, I like marketing the agricultural products and I challenged many obstacles related to entering the market with confidence and enthusiastic and treated with farmers directly from different governorates.
In her very beginning experience Haja Amina had interesting stories as she was exposed to businessmen harassment in public auctions. She dealt with farmers on the basis of specifying the price with them in advanced.
She assured that the money has paved a way and lessen the difficulties when she built a market in Sana'a to seal the farms products and bought a farm for potato and tomato in Marib and observe it by herself.
She further said “I supervised the farm in Marib by my self then I bought another farms specialized them for orange and mango. I have been enabled to own 30 farms and lorries to market the products in most local markets and export the surplus to the neighboring markets and others.
Haja Amina verified her farms products form vegetables, fruits, potatoes and tomatoes.
This businesswoman has gained through her agricultural experience in the knowledge in the times of farming the vegetables and fruits and when can be planted along the time.
She said “The ministry of Agriculture has to pay attention to fertile lands and farmers so that Yemen to be the richest country in the world.”
She confirms that the revenues of the agricultural products are opulent resources as the oil. However, regretfully the governmental attention to the agriculture is weak and most of crops spoiled for not being paid attention and properly stored.
This lady that titled with queen of orange in Yemen, distributed the brought back products to poor people and hospitals instead of decaying as there are not storing refrigerators. She feels pitiful for neglecting the agricultural lands.
Haja Amina has visited Spain, China, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq to get acquainted with the ways of preservation of agricultural products and how to can and package but she has failed to find local partners to help her to establish a project to store and preserve the superfluous product.
Haja Amina expressed her inability to export her agricultural products alone and deal with traders in the local market some of who re-export what they buy from her.
Between 6-7 lorries each one carries about 250 boxes of vegetables and fruits enter Sana'a during the cultivation times.
She says that she seals the ton of wholesale potato with YR45, 000 and the orange with YR50, 000 and mango with 50,000 and
Haja Amina has national stand when she donated with 200 tons of her agricultural products amounting YR7 million for the legal forces that were fighting the unification regressors in 1994.
She is the tiptop businesswoman that knows nor reading neither writing but she knows how to count the millions to get the title of the queen of orange with merits.
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