The Pasta Dealers from Maqellare
A tale of artisanal pasta against organised crime
Flour, eggs, and milk are the basic ingredients of artisan pasta, called “Jufka”. But their recipe for success is not the high-quality ingredients from the local area, says Lirie Rexha, rather: "It's the people who make it." Lirie Rexha is the founder of an informal women's cooperative and runs a small pasta factory in Pocest, Maqellare. The village is located in Dibra County, Albania. Here, unemployment and emigration are a major problem; involvement in illicit drug economy and terrorism are another, and all of them are closely linked. Lirie Rexha and the other women, such as the dairy farmer Daije Novaku, set an example against this and go further: with their work in solidarity, they are a kind of superpower that secures income for more than 20 families and, through their work, changes the position of women in their community.
Dibra is located in the northeast of Albania to the border of Macedonia. Surrounded by the Deshat-Korab and Lure-Selishtë mountain ranges, with two national parks and 21 glacial lakes, it is one of the most beautiful regions in the country - but also one of the poorest. The area has made headlines of the international media in recent years because a particularly large number of "Balkan Jihadis" have moved from the region to Syria or Iraq, and a disproportionately large number of young men are serving time in foreign prisons for working on illegal cannabis plantations.
City of men
Not far from Maqellare is the small town of Peshkopi. If you came from a big city and wandered through Peshkopi in the morning, you’d think you were in a science fiction movie where a virus has wiped out the female population. Only men in black and gray suits – with predominantly gray hair – animate the pedestrian zone with its local stores and small cafés. The younger ones have migrated and the women are at home, taking care of the children, doing housework, or working in the fields.
Less than 10 percent of women own land
"Women don't leave their homes and certainly don't go off to have fun," says Erald Lamja, who works for USAID and UN Women as a development expert and accompanies the women's cooperative in Maqellare for the GPDPD . Lamja devotes his work to promoting women's economic empowerment and participation because this is still almost non-existent in rural areas, and yet, is a key factor in the country’s economic development. The Albanian state does a lot to promote equal rights for men and women, but nothing changes more slowly than cultural patterns. Albania's rural regions in particular are traditional and, as far as role models for men and women are concerned, conservative. The birth of a boy is usually accompanied by joyous celebrations, while the birth of a girl triggers the wish: "Hopefully a boy next time" ("Herë tjetër me djalë").
Women work hard, but their access to resources and representation is limited, as in other countries of the Global South. Globally, seventy percent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty are women. At the same time, they are responsible for 50 to 80 percent of the world's food production but own less than 10 percent of the land. In Albania, 36 percent of the working population works in agriculture. It is therefore described as the backbone of the Albanian economy. But it is estimated that only 5-10 percent of women own land. Among men, the figure is 28 per cent after all (2020) .
People are more important than awards
Anyone approaching the house of Lirie and Karafil Rexha, located down narrow path on the hillside, can hear loud and cheerful voices from afar. Their veranda is the meeting place of the cooperative. This is where people discuss and plan, where they drink coffee together and laugh. When the women talk about their work, you can see the pride in their faces. Their pasta is known beyond the village; it is served in fine restaurants in Tirana. In 2022, the women's cooperative was honoured by Prime Minister Edi Rama for its culinary achievements. Lirie Rexha is naturally pleased with this recognition, but most important to her: "That the women can secure their families' income and that the young people in our community don't become criminals." In 2020, she was awarded the Universal Peace Federation's "Ambassador of Peace" award.
The story of the pasta women of Maqellare is one of resilience and success, which happens when people want to mold their lives, when they bring together the right people at the right time, and realise that their actions make a difference. But the road to this success has been long and it remains fragile. The Corona and energy crises are taking their toll on the Albanian economy, and the pasta factory is once again facing new challenges as energy prices rise. But let's start at the beginning.
Everything is interconnected
Lirie Rexha, a mother of four, attended an event for women at Dibra City Hall in 2005. The municipality had invited women to a USAID-supported workshop to find out which of their handicraft skills they could use to earn something on top of their household income. That's how Lirie Rexha discovered she could make money from her good pasta. She started making handmade and air-dried pasta in her living room and selling it for small money. She bought the raw ingredients such as fresh eggs, milk and butter from Daije Novaku, a smallholder farmer from Maqellare.
Daije Novaku is married, the mother of three sons, and grandmother of two grandchildren. We recount her story here briefly because it is representative of the existential struggle for survival of women and many people in the region. Daije Novaku has a small farm with 6 cows, whose milk she processes into butter and ricotta, and she tends a large vegetable and fruit garden and cultivates fields of corn. She is assisted by her husband and, in the meantime by her daughter in law The family's only means of transportation is a donkey.
In 2012, Daije Novaku lost her son Drilon when he was only 13 years old. He had a fatal accident while playing on the local mountain with his friedns. Today, when Daije Navaku stands at Drilon's grave with one of her grandchildren and runs her hands over his small effigy, she cries as if it happened yesterday. Eight years after the first, a second accident occurred: her then 16-year-old son Detar fell from the six floor of an illegal construction site in Macedonia. He had dropped out of school against his parents' wishes because he wanted to prove himself useful and earn money. Bones and dreams were shattered, but Detar survived, and many surgeries followed. Shortly thereafter, the children's father also suffered a heart attack and had to undergo surgery.
It is hard to imagine how Daije Novaku endures this suffering and the financial burdens that come with it. But she copes with it through the help of her family and the other women from the cooperative. The families of Maqellare not only have hardly any income prospects, they also have no social security. The consequences of an illness or an accident are often debt. The WHO estimates that in 2016, a quarter of Albanian households were at risk of impoverishment due to so-called out-of-pocket payments for health services. Strokes of fate like those of the Novaku family shape the community and the relationship of the women of Maqellare. Managing successfully and living well hang on a thin rope, without a net or a double bottom.
Over the years, the demand for pasta has continued to grow. Even as Lirie Rexha involved more and more women in the artisanal production of jufka, as the traditional dough is called, things did not linearly improve. Due to the natural drying process, the business could only operate during spring and summer; in the colder months it came to a standstill despite demand. The women had no business skills, the business was not and is not officially registered, and the products were labelled but not as required by food laws, ultimately limiting access to the market. The women have many skills; they are hardworking, inventive, and flexible. That said, without access to essential resources such as business knowledge or credit, the women and families are denied opportunities.
Access to resources is the key to progress
Over the years, the demand for pasta has continued to grow. Even as Lirie Rexha involved more and more women in the artisanal production of jufka, as the traditional dough is called, things did not linearly improve. Due to the natural drying process, the business could only operate during spring and summer; in the colder months it came to a standstill despite demand. The women had no business skills, the business was not and is not officially registered, and the products were labelled but not as required by food laws, ultimately limiting access to the market. The women have many skills; they are hardworking, inventive, and flexible. That said, without access to essential resources such as business knowledge or credit, the women and families are denied opportunities.
Development cooperation means giving the women the knowledge and support they now need to build up their economic existence independently and sustainably, if not secure it entirely. Alternative Development does not mean creating new dependencies, but providing support as needed, so that the support transforms the reality of life without interfering with communities and their core dynamics.
The women's cooperative received this support through a USAID project (2012-2020), which was then replaced bythe GPDPD Alternative Development project. Over the past years, as the women in Maqellare have been trained in business and legal aspects, they have implemented better working conditions, secured a pasta machine from Italy to replace manual rolling and cutting, and have refined their drying techniques for year-round production without sacrificing the quality of their products. Labelling and food safety have now been approved by the relevant government institutions, thus facilitating access to the market. The GPDPD also co-financed the expansion of their production facilities because the premises could no longer sufficiently match the growing demand. The income/turnover of the cooperative could thus be increased from 35,000 to 70,000 EUR per year by 2022.
Despite their successes, it is never guaranteed that the business will continue as prosperously as it is now. The Albanian economy is struggling with the consequences of the Corona crisis, inflation is at a record high of 8 percent at the beginning of 2023, the cost of energy such as petrol is almost as high as in the wealthier European countries, all the while the average personal income is 503 EUR. All this also drives up the price of wheat, while customers have less money in their pockets to spend.
When asked why Lirie Rexha only employs women in her cooperative, she answers directly: "Because they can work hard and meanwhile not lose the fun." Plus, they are resourceful, they don't give up, they keep going. In order to be resilient to crises and raw material slumps, the women are always coming up with new ideas and broadening their production. They have expanded their portfolio to include pastries (baklava), which became a fast seller for celebrations. They now experiment with dried fruits, preserves, and jams. Lirie, who is also affectionately called "Hala", the "aunt", by her group, knows that keeping the status quo is not enough.
The latest development: A woman from another village offered to grow durum wheat for the cooperative and promptly sowed winter wheat in autumn 2022. Soon, this will make them independent of the increased grain costs. A small chicken farm is also planned and will be supported by GPDPD in its implementation. In effect, this will create small satellites of the cooperative and other families will profit from the pasta business. The next step is to formalise and contractually secure all business relationships and to build up joint reserves for social security.
The women and also the men who support their wives and make no secret of it have earned respect in their community and beyond. They are respected people. They have achieved something without thinking only of themselves. This has left an enduring impression on many who now seek to emulate their actions. Lirie Rexha smiles at her husband, to whom she will soon be married for half a century and who helps out in the manufactory where he can. She says to him, "Thank you for your support!" "You are my star," he replies.