Seaskin

6 years ago, during a site visit to a coastal area, I observed fish waste covering spaces, a horrible smell, and women working in unhealthy conditions, some of them suffer from respiratory and skin diseases.

Actually, it’s universal, according to the united nations environment program, waste management is one of the biggest challenges in the modern world. here in Morocco, it is known for having the richest fish territory in the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco is 13th globally and first in Africa, with 1,3 M tons of fish production WHICH RESULT IN 500kT OF FISH WASTE (Farmed fish excluded). This causes many problems related to waste management and health issues, especially for people living near the ports... The challenge is that this waste is relocated to 12 regions in Morocco, suffering enormously from the problem of employability, particularly among young people and women; that suffer from the scarcity of work opportunities in their regions because most jobs opportunities are concentrated in big cities, in addition to the fact that work opportunities in those regions are dangerous (the treatment of the ourcin, for example, can cause cancers of hands)

SEASKIN MOROCCO is a cause-based business (limited liability company), specialized in recycling fish waste to produce natural fish leather products such as handmade fashionable accessories, and wearable and static items. This initiative is based in Morocco, 

our ambition is to be part of solving the fish waste problem and protecting the environment through a process of dry tanning that is advantaged by saving 90% of the water used in the industrial tanning processes by big companies.
So, our mission is to create an alternative to the existing exotic leather that harms the animal world and environment, by means of recycling fish waste and having a social impact by creating job opportunities for women and youth in coastal villages.

Our solution concerns creating job opportunities for youths; by collecting fish waste. Also, we do guarantee extra revenue for fishermen by buying fish waste, create flexible work for women in tanning the fish waste and provide a demand for artisans in charge of crafting our final products, recycling fish waste into sustainable materials without using any chemical items to produce our final product in collaboration with artisans.

Every person that will work with us will benefit from our training sessions in soft skills and hard ones, in a flexible manner (Women can choose to work in the workshop or at home, for we only believe in meeting the predefined objective), also they gonna have a correct salary with all their social right (health insurance, retirement...)

I started this business 6 years ago when I was a student member of an NGO that supports the social entrepreneurship enactus, I did a lot of visits to a coastal village beside Casablanca where I was a student engineer in high school of textile esith. where I discovered the problems and started the project with one of the women of this village amal, when I get my degree I directly create the company and launched a small workshop with the money that I gain when I was informal and start working, then we recruited other women who were in the same situation as amal then we recruited other people to help as in marketing finance... 

our team shares the same vision for a more responsible fashion industry as it is ranked first in harming the animal world, our aim is to build a sustainable business and empower women by creating job opportunities for them.

we have 12 women that made the produce leather 

2 young men in collecting fish waste 

we work with 18 fishermen that sell to as the fish wate 

we also work with 4 artisans 

and 3 persons in the management

We are a project that can create high impact either societally or environmentally; through a process of upcycling to develop fashionable products based on fish waste using natural products only, in addition to a process of dry tanning. Our economic impact concerns creating an economic movement in lots of regions in Morocco. All we need is just a boost (financial support and access to other markets ) to develop our activity that has a high potential market, creating not only jobs but a new ecosystem for so many direct and indirect opportunities.

We are creating jobs sustainably! 

we have an innovative product which is fish leather tanned through an innovative process which is the dry tanning process; a process that optimizes 90% of the water normally used in another process of tanning and more than 95% of the tanning time for the natural tanning that we use; we tan the fish leather with only natural product in just 5 days (normally the natural tanning need 90 days to be done) 

We are going to impact four types of jobs; for the first type, women producing fish leather, without any specific graduation or skills that we will train and recruit for an average of forty hour per week and a salary on average 3000 dhs /month we expect to impact 20 women by the next year and 60 by 2027, the second are the young men that will collect the primary material without specific skills that we will train an recruit on average forty hours a week, that can manage in their own we expect to impact 5 young men by the next year and 12 by 2027, why not having a choice as well to work in the workshop or from home in 80% of their tasks, the most important thing for us is the result, the third type is fishermen/women that need just to practice the job that we will also train them to develop the quality of primary materials and buy from them all the quantity that they have in condition of taking care of the quality min we buy from them 1200 dhs of fish waste per month plus their habitual revenue we expect to impact 30 of them by the next year and 70 by 2027. The type number four are artisans that we will train and subtract the final part of our process, we try to provide them with a stable demand of 10000 dhs / month for every workshop of artisans (on average 2 to 3 artisans) we expect to impact 7 of them by the next year and 15 by 2027.

The number of youth and women who gained an employment via newly created decent jobs.

The number of youth and women for whose employment conditions are improved.

The percentage of engagement of beneficiaries (Punctuality, concentration during the work …).

The quality of their work (Percentage of defective pieces, time of production/product, respect of the workshop; they don’t create problems …).

To measure the engagement of our beneficiaries we have provided an interview, every year in June, that offers us the opportunity to learn more about our beneficiaries; If they’re satisfied or not, as well as discussing main challenges they had faced during the previous year. Based on this interview and the evaluation form completed by their superior, we decide the percentage of their bonus income. We are also going to create a WhatsApp group to discuss the challenges and control the work, they will have a WhatsApp number to send their recommendations and complaints.

our solution create job opportunities for women in coastal villages, that gonna protect those women from working in dangerous jobs which affect badly their health also they gonna have enough money to support their families; guarantee education for their children also have health insurance so they can care health of their parents... and they gonna not think to quit the village to look for a job in big cities so they gonna take care of their families and be present with especially because for us they can work from home 

so by providing jobs for those women, we are supporting families not only individuals 

for youth by providing a job for them, we are supporting them to be useful in life and protecting them from emptiness and using drugs 

supporting artisans and introducing fish leather which is an innovative leather to the traditional art is supporting a hall sector to not disappear and encouraging youth to continue learning this skill

the technology that we use is a dry tanning process, that made thanks to the machine that we invent that uses the pressure , movement, and temperature to tan the fish leather by using only the humidity to optimize 90% of water and make the process faster to optimize the time of tanning to 95% 

also our recipe of natural products that we use to tan the fish leather is our innovation that we developed by own in the laboratory of the school where i studied esith (high school of textile )

Our business is creating an economic movement in small regions, through training and empowering women and youth to develop an innovative skill, producing innovative products to work with us, as well as training artisans to develop the required skills to work with us (deadlines and quality management), to attract clients, we also empower fishermen to be our suppliers.

We give the opportunity for women to work from home or in the workshop, in order to be able to freely practice their dual role, work and ensure their family duties.

We work in partnership with associations that help women and youth in difficult situations, which are our main target. We select our beneficiaries during the training, we also ask for an engagement from them to work with us if they are selected. 

We don’t think that our solution can have any negative effects for youth and women because we provide them with good and flexible work conditions, we also give them respectful salaries.  

we are creating an ecosystem where women youth and men work together to generate a successful product that transmit the story of a population 

Our business model consists of selling unique and authentic products with pleasant designs and exotic leather; a special demanded material. However, we are selling our products whether directly through our website, social media or indirectly through our retailer partners (Concept stories, hotels…..).

We think that we still have a gap between client’s expectations and what we found in the market. The client buys items only to change their bags and accessories …. Because they didn’t have the opportunity to choose the type of leather and how this leather is tanned, so they take a decision based on design, colours, quality of primary material, the experience of a brand of shoes made of Raffia; a natural plant, handmade by women artisans in Morocco and the demand became bigger after Covid19 crisis because they sell their products online especially out of Morocco.

i started this project by using my own mony , i was a student and i taked the money that my parents gives me to invest to buy the products and make the tests then i started producing small items key holder and small walets  with an artisan and sell them in events made by enactus , then i get a loan from an ngo to make my first big demand, and i started the business from here 

then i get other grants and succeed in competitions all of which helped me to establish my workshop, create the company sarl and start working as an organized company  we also continued to produce and sell the products which allowd us to grarantee the saleries of womens and artisans .

when we started, we started selling fish leather and small items based on this material and today we still sell the fish leather and we launched our brand Rhea (the queen of sustainable leather) to sell bags shoes,accessories...

We can produce an average of 2000 Piece / month, but our sales are based on orders, and in-stock. We are in need to maximize our marketing efforts in order to reach the international audience. Our profits for the last year are 93 000 $, our expenses are 68 000 $  

we also succed some competiton like best using of water 2019 cleantech morocco 18000dollars  orange corner competition 18000 dollars...

2020

2021

2022

Sales

37000

75000

93000

Expenses

28000

52000

68000