Article by Amelia Shaw, intern with the U.S. Department of State.
[Albania, August 2023] When Academy for Women Entrepreneurs alumna Ana Shima started making nut butter at home, she hit on a discovery that not only creates a new market for Albanian almonds, but helps protect the environment at the same time.
As a vegan, Shima was having trouble finding high-quality plant-based products in her native country Albania. So about five years ago she started experimenting in her kitchen, making paste with local almonds. She was amazed with the result.
“With Albanian nuts, it was out of this world,” said Shima, adding that Albanian almonds are much different than the California almonds that make up 90% of the international market. “Albanian almonds have different flavors, they are more aromatic, and taste like marzipan.”
Her almond butter was so good that her friends encouraged her to open a business. She won a local grant from her municipality to open a kitchen lab, where she continued testing prototypes with Albanian tree nuts like almonds and walnuts.
In 2018, she launched Pemla, a startup company that produces nut butter using locally produced tree nuts. “Pemla” is a word that derives from an old Albanian word for tree, and it means ‘fruit of the forest’. After just one year of product development, jars of Pemla nut butter started appearing in local supermarkets in 2019.
Beyond just a great-tasting product, Shima says her business is serving a higher purpose - to support rural farmers and help protect Albania’s rugged hillsides from deforestation.
“I am an environmentalist first,” said Shima, recalling the early days when she started visiting farmers in rural areas. “When I saw how nut trees are cultivated in the mountains and hills, I realized that this business is environmentally sustainable.”
Right: Pemla nut butters are made with local Albanian tree nuts like almonds and walnuts. Photo credit: Amina Basha
To source ingredients, Pemla works with more than 130 local small farmers across the country, some of whom have only 10-20 nut trees. Their business gives them a stable market for their produce, which the company processes into butter.
“It’s important that it is easy for our customers to make the change to eco-friendly products, so we look for durable goods at an affordable price,” Budhraja said.
Since it launched in 2020, Shift Eco has grown a lot. It currently operates with 15 employees divided into 4 operational divisions, with a warehouse in Dubai. The company ships products throughout the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with plans to expand to more of the Middle East.
To boost production and expand operations, Shima launched the Farmer Group initiative which seeks to register the small farmers they work with as a legal entity and help them to acquire an official organic farming certificate. Attaining the organic certificate will help the company grow into larger markets in Europe.
But as with many small businesses, life got difficult in 2020 as COVID broke out and consumers vastly changed their spending habits. Shima struggled to keep Pemla afloat. Then she heard about an opportunity to be part of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) in 2022, and applied.
“Before I applied for AWE, I debated closing the business,” admitted Shima. “The market was shrinking due to the economic crisis from the pandemic. And since the war started in the Ukraine, prices have gone up. It has been a difficult moment.”
Left: Shima said that the AWE program helped her to stick with her business during tough times, and survive the economic downturn caused by COVID. Photo credit Amina Basha
Shima was one of 45 women to be accepted into AWE. She said AWE gave her the inspiration she needed to stick with her business goals and not give up.
“Being part of a group of women who are trying to do the same thing - to start up a business - was inspiring,” said Shima. “Most women were in the idea phase, and it was amazing to be part of this group of women who are encouraging each other.”
Shima said the AWE facilitators used interactive group games to teach problem-solving, leadership, and empowerment skills. For example, in one group game, teams had to hold up as many pieces of paper as possible using any part of the body except their hands.
“The first time we lost,” said Shima. So she said her team regrouped, strategized, and found a way to work together differently to win the next round - a lesson which she took to heart.
“It was cool psychologically, to see how to learn from your mistakes,” said Shima, adding this is a powerful lesson she said for anyone trying to start a business.
“We often think we have to do it all alone, particularly in small countries like Albania. The training gave us the idea that when we collaborate with others, people can help you. You can always ask for help.”
While still a small operation with just three female staff, Pemla produces about 4,000 jars of nut butter per year, and is designing a marketing campaign to introduce the product to consumers who may be unfamiliar with almond butter.
Shima hopes to hire additional staff and grow the business - and by doing so, encourage more tree nut farming in Albania as a regenerative form of agriculture for the country’s hilly terrain.
Shima also hopes to penetrate wider European markets, particularly once she has succeeded in attaining the organic certification. In fact, Pemla is currently preparing its first order for export to the Czech Republic, and is negotiating terms with another client in Switzerland.
Shima is grateful for her AWE experience, which she said taught her a lot about leadership and her own strengths.
I don’t like to ‘toot my own horn’ as they say - I’ve always found it hard to sell my ideas,” said Shima. “But this training helped me to recognize the benefits of my project. Now I can speak about it and feel proud, and inspire other people by my example.”
So while Shima is working to create sustainable and healthy food sources, her eco-social enterprise is helping improve the local ecology and economy for Albania’s small farmers - one tree at a time. She said that, as a feminist, she hopes more women will follow her lead.
Shima hopes that her company Pemla can help support local small farmers to produce more tree nuts like almonds, and promote sustainable agriculture on Albania’s hilly terrain. Photo credit Bledar Kumaraku
“Women in business are important, we put our heart and soul into our work,” said Shima. “The more women there are in business, the better the world will be.”
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs was launched by the U.S. Department of State in 2019 to equip enterprising women with the knowledge, networks and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses. Using cutting-edge U.S. business learning platforms designed by the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, AWE has helped nearly 25,000 women around the world follow their professional dreams - including more than 100 women entrepreneurs in Albania.
