International research firm, Konfidants has called on the Ministry of Trade and Industry and its agencies such as the Ghana Enterprises Agency (Formerly NBSSI), National Entrepreneurship Innovation Program (NEIP), Standards Authority to collaborate with the Food and Drugs Authority and other stakeholders to come up with a holistic policy and program framework to improve shelf space of Made-In-Ghana (MIG) goods.
This call comes at the back of a survey conducted in December 2020 by Konfidants, which proves that only 26 percent of Made-In-Ghana goods are being sold by nine of the leading supermarkets and two fuel stations in Accra on 19 product categories.
This according to the firm, has made it difficult for locally manufactured goods to thrive on the shelves of these leading supermarkets in Accra and must be evidence-based to set a target for a minimum threshold for Made-In-Ghana goods across the supermarkets within a specified period.
In the recent research conducted by the firm, “a total number of 7,983 brands that are from the 19 product categories, which were counted across all 11 retail outlets included in the survey. Out of this number, 5,943, thus (74%) were foreign brands, with only 2,040 thus (26%) being Made-In-Ghana brands. This is an improvement on the 2019 survey when only 18% of goods surveyed were Made-In-Ghana.”
The survey, therefore, indicated that “despite the increase in the number of Made-In-Ghana goods sold across the selected supermarkets, the best performing category of Made-In-Ghana goods is water (with 60% of all water on sale produced in Ghana), followed by eggs (with 55% MIG), fruits and vegetables (52% MIG) and spreads (44.74%) which is, however, noted that despite the performance of these dominant food product categories is still not good enough.”
The research also revealed some disturbing trends in the following products, “Only 2% of jams and marmalades on the shelves are Made-In-Ghana, which is worrying given that 58% of Fresh Fruits on the shelves are Made-In-Ghana. (This is one area where there is a clear need and opportunity to add value locally). Over 62% of all rice, salt (65%), fresh meat (66%), fresh poultry (70%), and even chocolate (65%) brands on the shelves were foreign as well. Given these products have very strong production possibilities on the local market, this is quite worrying,”
The firm further charged policymakers and key stakeholders to review current efforts being made to increase the shelf presence of Made-In-Ghana goods.
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Story by: Tabitha Aidoo | universnewsroom.com
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