A quick glance at the shelves in most of the supermarkets in Georgetown and its environs will show that, in spite of several campaigns being carried out to encourage consumers to ‘buy local’, more foreign products are being offered to consumers, sometimes even at higher prices.
Just last weekend, “Buy local” was a prevailing theme of the ‘Uncapped’ agro processors expo held at the National Stadium. At the expo, there were several local exhibitors encouraging citizens to support locally-produced items. Supermarkets were also urged to stock local products, so as to give consumers more choices.
This was indeed a good initiative, and efforts such as these must be continued on a more regular basis. Such initiative provides an opportunity for agro-processors to showcase what they can offer; and, more importantly, provides a platform to introduce consumers to top quality local products which could be had as against foreign ones.
In the past, supermarket managers, though not dismissing the quality of local products, claimed it was easier to stock foreign products, and that consumers have a preference for such products, and as such, there is a greater turnover. It should be noted, too, that many local producers have claimed that the supermarkets would buy only limited quantities of their products, despite the fact that their prices were competitive.
The Guyana Consumers Association (GCA) has also been pushing local products, and has even suggested that if the local product is of good quality and is being offered at a competitive price when compared to foreign ones, then it would be in the consumer’s own interest to support locally produced items. The GCA had stated that when consumers go into supermarkets, they should ask for local products; noting that if they keep buying foreign products, the supermarket owners would continue stocking foreign products.
Buying local products generates wealth and employment locally, and is of as much social as of economic benefit to communities and the country as a whole. Supporting local is something which all countries, even the wealthy ones such as the United States, advocate in one guise or another, despite talk about globalization and free trade.
Buying local is of ultimate benefit to the consumer himself; and it is easy to buy local if one analyses and compares the local product with its foreign equivalent. In doing such comparison, one should begin with food and drink. Food products produced locally are fresher and more nutritious, and in most cases are organically produced. Local vegetables are much less expensive than the foreign ones.
While we are not advocating that supermarkets or other retailers should limit the choices to consumers in any way, many consumers would agree that some local products are as good as, or even better than, the foreign ones; but yet, as a result of long indoctrination, they almost mechanistically buy the foreign ones.
That said, we just cannot assume that consumers would change their attitudes to local products overnight. It requires much effort from both the Government and the mainstream private sector to encourage persons to support local products. While there have been campaigns in the past to encourage persons to buy local, such efforts were limited; they were basically ‘food fairs’ with minimal participation from local companies and citizens. Events such as ‘Uncapped’ should be held in all regions of Guyana, with a focus on showcasing the potential of local agro processors and creating a network of support for such companies.
Additionally, some analysts have pointed out that the vast majority of the local manufacturing initiatives have been undertaken on a small scale, with minimal financial investment. In most cases, there is hardly enough money allocated towards ensuring that those local products are effectively marketed.
We urge the Government, in particular the Business Ministry, to take the necessary steps that would really begin to see local products being pushed on the market. The Government must allocate the necessary financial resources that would ensure a suitable environment is created to support the development and marketing of local products.
