Yemenis Lose Trust in Local Products Part 2 [Archives:2000/50/Interview]

BY:
Abdullah Abdulilah Salam
Mr. Abdullah al-Harazi, Industrial Office Chairman, Hodeidah, said Yemeni consumer has not lost trust in Yemeni products. The point is that there are many products being smuggled into the country and are sold for cheap prices, consequently making consumers buy them in large quantities being unaware of the harm. Ive noticed that myself.
Despite the fact that many establishments of the private sector have made laudable strides to improve, these establishments are facing strong challenges caused by smuggling foreign goods into the country. The government should have a strong and decisive action to monitor land and sea crosspoints banning smuggled products.
Mr. Jamal Mohammed Abdulrahman, from Yemen Organization for Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control (YOSMQC), Taiz, said There are many local products that meet the international standards. Tests conducted by YOSMQC on these products attached credence to this. Besides most of the national factories are regularly monitored and supervised from the first stages to the final stages of production.
The reasons that has made the Yemeni consumer lose trust in local products are as follows:
1) Aggressive campaigns conducted against local products undermining the consumers trust.
2) Some bad local products being quite spread in the market.
3) The baseless common assumption on the part of consumers that foreign products are of high quality.
To help develop local products, the following suggestions can be adopted:
1) The industrial sector should focus on obtaining ISO and HACCP certificates, especially factories producing food products. The media should play a pivotal role in raising the awareness of the people to the importance of these systems and certificates.
2) The governmental institutions should support YOSMQC in terms of providing the resources needed to establish labs that monitor work in these factories.
3) Protecting the national products and encouraging them in terms of lowering taxes.
4) Combating smuggling in all its forms.
5) Developing the awareness of consumers through the media to the good quality of the national products.
6) Combating the policy of flooding local markets with foreign products, imposing regular monitoring campaigns on all imported products.
7) Combating commercial counterfeiting, imposing heavy penalty on violators.
Mohammed Omar Ba-Mashmosh, Industrial and Trade Chamber board director, Aden, said Reasons behind losing confidence in local products is the Foreign Complex on the part of consumers. People have believed in this assumption over a long span of time and without any basis. This belief can only be refuted if we pull together to develop standards of local products. When we prove that, only then can we restore peoples trust in our products.
Consumers dont support any product unless it is good and cheap. However, sometimes people buy diseases by buying these products which are harmful. Therefore awareness promotion programs should be launched to make ignorant consumers aware of these products quality standards.
So as to encourage local products, aggressive campaigns have to be launched to convince consumers of the good quality of these products. Comparisons between local and foreign products should also be drawn to set forth the ins as well as the outs of both the products.
People are always supportive of their national products. However the point is that their local products should be made in accordance with world quality standards so as to have a chance to compete with foreign products.
GATT has abolished all restrictions to let competition rule. Only the better and stronger has to live up.
Mr. Hamoud K. al-Bukhaiti, Consumer Protection Society vice chairman, said Many are the reasons that made the Yemeni consumers lose confidence in local products, chief among which are the following: the Yemeni consumers culture. The culture obtained by the Yemeni consumer has been negative for local products. What the consumer sees in national festivals and what he finds on the Yemenia airlines about foreign products makes him believe that there is no way to compare local products to foreign products. Second is the state of indifference manufacturers show towards consumers. In fact, manufacturers aggravate the problem considerably. Products should be made after conducting surveys and studies on the market and consumers needs. Besides, the role of the General Union of Industrial and Trade Chamber and that of Yemeni Industrial Association seems to be stagnant. The relationship between the producers and consumers should be based on credibility and transparency. However, this is not there.
There are some good local products, but how many manufacturers do follow and keep up to the world quality standards and specifications? So often we used to ask the manufacturers association to do their job and promote awareness about local products. However, it has failed to maintain its commitment to the aims and goals set for this association. Another thing is the weak purchase ability of Yemeni consumer which forces him to buy the cheaper variety.
In order to overcome all these setbacks and retrieve the situation before its too late, manufacturers have to show their good intents by setting right all their conditions to regain the consumers confidence. The industrial sector should be re-structured qualifying the products that can stand competition. The international quality standards should also be followed and adhered to. Local products should be promoted and encouraged in terms of re-evaluating the Tariffs, taxes, etc.
Mr. Faisal Saeed Farea, economist & al-Saeed Establishment for Science & Culture, said Yemeni consumer has not lost trust in local products. If it were true, factories would have closed down. This wont happen for local products are still enjoying good support and patronage of consumers. Many consumers have lately tried foreign products. But, they came down to find they are not up to the standards.
So to protect local products and support them there should be a clear-cut strategy based on three factors: the government, national capital, factory and consumer.
Mr. Bassam Abdullah Kahtan al-Sharaabi, supermarket owner, said It is not easy to regain the confidence of consumers in local products. Reasons behind losing the public trust are as follows:
1) Unabidance of manufacturers to the world quality standards
2) Mistaken assumption of consumers towards local products.
3) Indifference of factory owners to export local products.
4) Some consumers sluggishness to support local products.
So if we want to support local products, we have to promote the standards of local products so that they can compete with foreign products. There should also be some programs about promoting awareness about the local products.
Mr. Rafiq al-Hakimi, from Yemeni-German Bee Project, said local products should be made in accordance to world quality standards. In our project we always make bee keepers aware of good ways to collect honey. Honey should be collected in clean plates so as to compete with foreign honey. We are often criticized for not having labs to examine whether it is pure or not. This is true, for after conducting surveys in Taiz, Sanaa, Hodeidah, Aden and Ibb, we came to find that more than 1800 honey consumers were asking that standards of Yemeni honey should be in line with the foreign honey.

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