Government rallies supermarkets and retail stores to promote local products

Company News of Monday, March 25, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-03-25

The government, through the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), has launched a campaign to encourage foreign supermarkets and retail outlets in Ghana to promote locally made products called "Made in Ghana Display".

As a result, the FDA has begun to engage with major supermarkets and retailers to allocate specific sections in their supermarkets and stores to Made in Ghana products.

The goal is to improve access to local products, even in these stores, and to intensify efforts to develop the markets for products made in Ghana.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who said this, said in response to the campaign: "Some of these stores have already begun to dedicate shelves of choice to Ghanaian manufactured goods."

FDA Executive Director Delese Darko recently launched the "Buy Ghana Love Ghana" at the Koala supermarket in Accra. We want to challenge other retail stores to replicate them, "said Oppong Nkrumah.

The FDA is also ready to speed up the registration of locally manufactured products to meet international standards, he said.

This, he insisted, will facilitate admission to global outlets, both here and abroad.

"It should be noted at this point that the food industry is making a huge contribution to the local economy and that the FDA is striving to bring it up to international standards and create more storage space. in its local supermarkets, "he added.

"We urge manufacturing companies and local start-ups to take advantage of them and register their products so that they can be competitive in the market," said the Information Minister.

Delese Darko, chief executive of the FDA, explained the reason for this initiative following a meeting with President Akufo-Addo, during which he said that emerging markets in Turkey, India and in China had become so condescending. their own products.

She said that they had gone to do an inspection in India and that they had only seen trucks carrying raw materials to India and trucks carrying finished products from India. , which means that as a country, "if we want to go where they want to come to, we have to start patronizing our own products and so we've taken the president [Akufo-Addo] statement as seriously as we should put this initiative in place, where we ask outlets that sell other products to give local products the importance they deserve. "

"We also have at the Food and Drugs Authority, we have special units that are dedicated to the registration of locally made products.We also have an industrial support department, which looks at the industry, so if you come as a startup, we have a specially set up to help you bring your sector to be able to manufacture products worthy of international standards. "