“When I moved to the States when I was 16, all I could find in supermarkets were genetically modified products and unhealthy food.
I gained around 20 kilos that first year. I used to be fit before that, and do lots of sports, so it was very hard for me.
That’s the first time I realized the importance of food in our well-being.

I moved back to Lebanon some years later, and started working alongside my father to develop his wheat-free oat bread brand.

I realized that I couldn’t find in the country the energy bars or healthy snacks I needed to eat healthily on the go. So very quickly, I started baking my own energy bars, cookies, and biscuits, and selling them at Souk al Tayeb, alongside my father’s bread.

Three years down the line in December 2015, I had a breakdown: I was working with all my guts for something that was not mine, that was not my vision. I wanted to do more than sell cakes and bread at Souk al Tayeb. I wanted to make Lebanese healthy snacks available to everyone.

This is how I decided to start Taqa, a Lebanese healthy snacks brand based in Tripoli.”

Soumaya Merhi, 30, founded Taqa, a GMO-Free and dairy-free snacks producer.