Mahalle, a family business of trading goods from Turkey in food and non-food categories recently launched its first store and online shop in Dubai, UAE. The aim of this store is to provide opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Turkey to sell their home made products to an international and diverse community of buyers located within the nation.
Located in Arenco Tower in Dubai Internet City, the Mahalle store offer customers authentic and quality products that include but not limited to: cooking oils, olives and capers food items – such as cheese, yoghurt, cold cuts, nuts, ravioli, Turkish coffee, amongst others. Furthermore, the store also provides authentic quality non-food products that include but not limited to: Turkish Cotton towels, Embroidery Bed Linen Sets, Porcelain Mezze Platters, tea pots, coffee mugs and more. The inauguration of the store took place on February 26th with the presence of Mr. Mustafa Ilker Kilic, Consul General of Turkey in Dubai, Mr. Ersoy Erbay, Commercial Attaché at Consulate General of Turkey in Dubai and Ms. Fatma Nilgun Emrem, President, Turkish Business Council – Dubai and Northern Emirates – UAE.
For Mahalle it was imperative to support women entrepreneurs by purchasing local products from women’s cooperatives, women’s initiatives and farmer cooperatives as much as possible and provide them with export requirements with one caveat – they only sell what they try first.
“Our first rule was not to sell anything we didn’t try,” said Burak Arcan, Founder of Mahalle. “In the summer of 2021, we travelled all around Turkey, met amazing women and were guests at their tables. Their hospitality, drive and determination to create opportunities for themselves and their families was simply awe-inspiring. This further motivated us to provide them with new opportunities to connect with audiences not just locally but internationally. The UAE is not only a nation that is multicultural, diverse and accepting of all, but it also provides women entrepreneurs with a phenomenal ecosystem to thrive. We look forward to serving the UAE community with exceptional homemade products and a taste of Turkey at its best.”
The UAE is internationally regarded as being a country that supports women entrepreneurship. In fact, free zones and other jurisdictions are constantly competing to create ‘Women Entrepreneur Packages’. In addition, the cost of licenses for certain categories of business enterprise has also been reduced, in the hope that more women will be convinced to take on the role of a business owner. At the same time, the local licensing authorities are also giving them the flexibility to decide how they want to go about conducting their business.
Burak further stated that they hope that this initiative that started in Turkey can further inspire local and expat women in the UAE to pursuit an entrepreneurial journey of their own and share their skills, talent and creativity with an ever expanding market of welcoming customers.