Ms. Manal is the founder of Blue Moon LLC, Egypt (an Egyptian private company that helps improve local practice, ensure sustainability and empower producers to earn the trust of the international supply chain).
She has engaged with voluntary sustainability standards governing agriculture and food production as early as 1998/1999, these standards include BRCGS Food Standard, BRCGS Ethical Trade and Responsible Sourcing Standard, BSCI (amfori), ETI UK and SEDEX/SMETA, FAIRTRADE Standards, GLOBALG.A.P., LEAF Marque, Marks and Spencer Select Farm Produce, Tesco Minimum Produce Standard, Organic production laws (Egypt and EU), BioSuisse organic production, International Demeter Biodynamic Standard.
Her extensive experience with voluntary sustainability standards and the daily lives of smallholders in Egypt and other countries around the world such as Kenya, Lebanon, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe has led her to sit as an “observer for smallholders” at the “GLOBALG.A.P. fruit and vegetables technical committee”, and the “GLOBALG.A.P. Focus Group for Environmental Sustainability in Crop Production”. She is also an approved consultant for LEAF Marque, and has worked as a consultant and trainer for BSCI (amfori) for the food sector in Egypt and Turkey.
Manal has worked as a licensed auditor for FLOCERT, and conducted more than 40 audits for producers and traders of fruit & vegetables, flowers and cotton against Fairtrade standards in Egypt, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Currently, Manal is an approved training partner for BRCGS Food and ETRS Standards, and a member of the BRCGS Compliance Team. In 2009, Manal founded the GLOBALG.A.P. National technical working group in Egypt for Fruit and Vegetables, and since 2010 she facilitates the Egyptian Suppliers Ethical Trade Forum with a clear focus on developing a sustainable policy for the prevention of risks associated with seasonal workers in agriculture.
