The secretary general of the association said the
growth of the business of food and juice processing in The Gambia is at a standstill
because “there are too much bottlenecks in carrying out their trade, key among
them is the refusal by supermarkets and most hotels in the country to sell Gambian-made
foodstuffs.
Isaac Thomas, Food Processors SG |
In an interview with Gambia News Online, Isaac Thomas,
Chief Executive Officer of Gamjuice, a local juice processing firm, said most
of the supermarkets refuse to trade in foodstuffs locally produced.
Most of them (supermarkets) do not even have a space
to sell Gambian foodstuffs because there is usually no special shelf for
Gambian products, he said.
A common reason given by the supermarkets for
refusing to sell homemade products is that they don’t have ready-made cash to
buy the products, Mr Thomas said.
Even when food processors are willing to supply
hotels and supermarkets on credit they still “refuse” to patronise local
businesses, he added.
“There should be Gambian shelf at all the
supermarkets, so that if any tourists or other travellers come to the country,
they would see our own local juices and foods to buy,” Mr Thomas reasoned.
“Most times foreigners or tourists in The Gambia do
not buy our locally made products or foodstuffs because they hardly see them in
supermarkets, since out of sight is out of mind,” the Gamjuice manufacturer
said. “You cannot buy something that you don’t see. But if they come to the
supermarkets and see Gambian-made products on the shelves then they would begin
to appreciate and buy them.”
Efforts to get comments from some supermarket owners
have so far proved futile but our reporter says most of the supermarkets he
visited to seek opinion from their
owners did not have a special shelf dedicated to selling products made in The Gambia. The reporter observed that the only Gambian
product available at some of the supermarkets is cake. Only few of the supermarkets have some
Gambian juices which are even packed in tight corners and often times in small
fridges, he says, adding that locally made products like juices are only made
available on request unlike other juices which are widely displayed on shelves.
“The supermarkets are not taking our Gambian
products for sale,” Mr Thomas reiterated. “The reason is because they want to
kill us. Most of these supermarkets are owned by foreigners; the Indians and
the Lebanese and these people want to kill the local markets. This is the
bottom line.
“They want to kill our farmers because we the
processors buy the raw materials from the farmers. If they killed us then they
killed the farmers because if the farmers are producing without any market for
their products they will stop farming.”
He said further: “I personally use to buy D5,000 to
D10,000 worth of palm wine in a go. Most
of the farmers have not been getting such amount of sales, and I am only doing
that to process and sell, but if I process and have no market for it, then I
will stop buying it. And when the
tappers have nowhere to sell their wine then they will stop tapping and this
will increase the poverty in the country.”
The Gamjuice CEO also calls on the Gambia Tourism
Authority to help by advising hotel operators in the country to also be buying
and selling products made in The Gambia in hotels. “Most of the hotels are
selling only foreign drinks and not products made in the country,” he argued,
saying: “The tourists come here for
local drinks and foods; they are not here for fish and chips or the so-called
carbonated drinks; they want our own drinks.”
He continued: “The GTA should support Gambian processors
and farmers, by encouraging hotels to buy locally made juices, since they are
standard and hygienic enough to be taken to the hotels or anywhere.”
Mr Thomas says he conducts regular food safety test
at recognised health units in the country such as the National Agricultural
Research Institute (NARI) and leading laboratories in the country like Jabot Laboratory.
Call
for Protectionism
Considering the aforementioned predicament or
situation of local companies and their products, it is increasingly becoming
vital for locally made foodstuffs to be protected from the negative impacts
created by imported foodstuffs on their sale. Food processors in the country
are therefore calling for some form of protectionism to increase the sale of
locally made foodstuffs and the growth of local manufacturing companies.
“We want protection from the authorities,
particularly the Ministry of Trade Regional Integration and Employment; we
expect them to say something because the processors are dying,” Mr Thomas said,
adding: “We are also calling on the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the
Ministry of Trade and the Gambia Tourism Authority to come to our aid in order
for hotels and supermarkets to practise the habit of selling our products.”
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