KEPALA BATAS: With the knowledge gained and assistance received from a Federal Government agency, Zarina Abu Bakar, 35, can now hold her head up high.
Her nine-year effort to come up with a plant-based product has borne fruit.
In 2009, with a startup capital of only RM1,000, Zarina had bought roselle plants, popular in the northern part of the peninsula, from Pantai Kamloon villagers here to be further developed at a factory built near her house.
With grit and determination, Zarina, a food technology diploma graduate from Politeknik Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Kuantan, became a successful roselle entrepreneur.
She earns an annual income of between RM300,000 and RM400,000, and the products made by her company, Arina Food Enterprise, are now sold in countries such as Ireland and Cambodia, as her roselle juice is popular with customers there.
She is often seen at expositions and entrepreneur carnivals promoting her products.
“The demand for my roselle products is high. Sometimes, I can’t meet all my customers’ requests as there are only limited stocks available.
“Thankfully, the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) has helped in the production of roselle, processing it into other products besides the juice,” she said at the House of Roselle here, which she also established.
Zarina said without the agency’s help to empower youth under the National Transformation 2050 (TN50) initiative, her dreams would not have become reality.
“Through TN50, improvements and approaches have been implemented to help young and budding entrepreneurs achieve greater success.”
She said to fulfil demand, she bought raw materials from roselle farmers in Nibong Tebal and Kepala Batas.
She said aside from her roselle juice and dried roselle, she also manufactures and sells other roselle-based products, such as herbal teas, ice creams, pickles, sauce, cakes and jellies.
She added that the House of Roselle was established in December 2015 and it was a one-stop centre for roselle-based products made by Muslim entrepreneurs from small and medium industries.