SMALL GRANTS STORIES : Palm d'Or

COVID-19 Response / Articles / 15-12-2022

After seven years working repairs at local restaurants and coffee shops, I saw a need in the market for sugar cubes. In  2018, I launched my own sugar company in Sidi Bouzid, selling and delivering sugar cubes to the coffee shops I had worked for.  

There was a lot of demand for the product – and my business grew from three employees to seven in less than two years.

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, however, sugar imports halted, forcing us to suspend operations for nearly five months.  

Once imports finally resumed, we needed a way to recover lost revenue. Many of our clients, at the same time, were requesting sugar sticks, rather than sugar cubes, to improve sanitary conditions during the pandemic.

The grant we received under the COVID-19 Enterprise Recovery Fund established by the U.S. government as part of its USAID Tunisia JOBS program helped us purchase a sugar-stick machine to begin providing this product. As a result, we have been able to meet customers’ demand and bounce back from the pandemic.  

Salim Saidi - Director of the company Palm d'Or

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