“I was born in 1975, the year the civil war started. I grew up in an environment of stress, bombing, shelters. I lost some friends in this meaningless war. A lot of people I knew left the country. Some went to Europe, others migrated to Canada.

But my family decided to stay in Lebanon. My father used to say: “We are Lebanese, we stay in Lebanon. It’s our duty to work for our country.”

 

I believe this is where I get my very strong attachment to Lebanon from.

 

So when I moved to the US in 1998 to study, it was very clear in my mind that I would come back one day.

 

In New York City, where I was living, I often felt homesick. I missed my friends and family.

I missed the typically Lebanese stuff: a man’oushe to eat in the morning, some baklawa to enjoy during the day, a song of Fairuz on the radio..

This is when I identified an opportunity: there was a need for good and authentic Lebanese products, made in Lebanon, outside of Lebanon. In NYC, I could find some Lebanese products, but they were never as good as the ones made back home. And I missed this taste of my country.

 

In NYC, I discovered e-commerce. See, I’m a huge fan of music, I discovered how easy it was to order them online and get them delivered.

I loved the concept so much that when I came back to Lebanon in 1999, I launched the first online platform that sells CDs. But it didn’t pick up because Lebanese people were still not used to online payment.

So I came back to my first idea:

I wanted to help the Lebanese diaspora stay in touch with their country by bringing them the products they miss most.

And I wanted to let the world know what true “Lebanese quality” meant.

 

This is how I started BuyLebanese.com in November 2000: it’s an online e-commerce platform which today sells and promotes hundreds of products made in Lebanon, and delivers them straight from Lebanon to over 130 countries within 3 days. We deliver food products, CDs, books, movies, anything and everything that is Lebanese, that is of quality, and that promotes our culture worldwide.”

 

 

Karim Saikali, 43, is the founder of BuyLebanese.com. He just celebrated the 18th anniversary of his company!

 

Photo by Soraya Hamdan

Today, his dream is to promote even more Lebanese products around the world. “I am disappointed by what Lebanon has become. But I don’t regret contributing to the development of my country: with BuyLebanese.com, I help industries, producers, authors, musicians, promote their products around the world. I feel like I help shed a light on Lebanon. Even during the 2006 war, we never stopped working, and I’m proud of it. I wanted to show the whole world that we are Lebanese, we are resilient, and we don’t get destroyed that easily!”