Supermarkets In Ghana Sell Only 26% local Goods – Report

Only 26% percent of consumable goods sold in Ghana’s leading supermarkets are produced in the country.

This is according to a report by international advisory firm, Konfidants.

The report, the second in a series after a first publication in 2019, is aimed at monitoring local content to help track progress for the government’s push for more local content in leading supermarkets in the country.

It also aims to provide evidence-based insights to guide policymaking, dialogue with supermarkets and to support local producers.

Conducted in December 2020, the report covered nine (9) leading supermarkets and two (2) popular fuel station marts in Accra: Shoprite (Accra Mall), Game (Accra Mall), Palace Supermarket (Palace Mall), Koala (Osu), Maxmart (37), City Dia (La), Melcom (North Kaneshie) and Marina Mall Supermarket (Airport), China Mall (Spintex), Baatsonaa Total (Baatsonaa), Airport Shell (Airport).eight leading supermarkets in Accra including Shoprite (Accra Mall), Game (Accra Mall), Palace Supermarket (Palace Mall) and Koala (Osu).

The rest are Maxmart (37), CityDia (La), Melcom (North Kaneshie) and Marina Mall Supermarket (Airport).

It focused on 19 major products including water, eggs, cooking oils, fruits and vegetables amongst others.

Based on the findings, the 26% shelf space for made-in-Ghana products is an improvement on what pertained in 2019, 18%.

“The findings provide a bittersweet picture when compared to the previous edition: There are still not enough Made-In-Ghana goods in the retail outlets, but there has been some improvement from the previous 2019 survey. A total number of 7,983 brands (from the 19 product categories) were counted across all 11 retail outlets included in the survey. Out of this number, 5,943 (74%) were foreign brands, with only 2,040 (26%) being Made-In-Ghana brands. This is an improvement on the 2019 survey when only 18% of goods surveyed were Made-In-Ghana.”

Performance of various goods
Unlike in the 2019 report, the 2020 survey saw bottled water being the leading locally produced item on the shelves in supermarkets followed by eggs and fruits and vegetables.

The 2019 report saw egg being the leading item with bottled water being the second.

Items found to have the least Ghanaian representation are Biscuits & Confectionaries which represented only 6%, Noodles & Pasta also 6% and Utensils & Cutlery, 7%.

Comparing to its findings from 2019, Konfidants said there had been a clear increase in the share of Made-in-Ghana products over the period.

Price comparison
Konfidants said contrary to the general notion that made-in-Ghana products are largely more expensive than foreign products on the shelves, it found that most of the projects were actually cheaper than competing foreign brands, although the differences were marginal.

“Using a subset of products for price comparison in 2019, it was found that in 73% of those products, Made-In-Ghana goods were cheaper than foreign ones, although the price differentials were marginal, as one would expect in a retail context. However, the recent survey recorded a more even distribution of price, over a much larger sample size. This means that while Made-In-Ghana goods do not have a strong pricing advantage over foreign goods, they are still price-competitive and not overwhelmingly more expensive as is the general notion,” the report said.

Way forward
While the report noted significant progress over the period, it said “there is still a lot of work to be done to reach that goal.”

“In making recommendations, there is the need for policymakers and key stakeholders to review current efforts being made to increase shelf presence of Made-In-Ghana goods, to ensure these efforts are holistic, dealing with the very roots of the problem and ensuring that any results attained are not just at face value but are deeply impactful and sustainable.”

It also said, with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) taking off, the competitiveness of Made-In-Ghana producers and suppliers is about to be tested even more – at home and abroad hence the need for Ghana to “go beyond the sole FDA led approach to a multi-stakeholder approach,” and getting other relevant agencies such as The Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Standards Authority, GIPC, AGI, MASLOC, GIPC, the supermarkets themselves to work together and develop a holistic policy and program framework geared towards improving shelf space of Made-in-Ghana product.