Supermarket chains in Sierra Leone have received a new ultimatum from the government to boost the sales of locally produced goods. Unlike in the last confrontation with the government, most retailers have welcomed the new instructions and believe they will be good for business.

The government of Sierra Leone, through its Ministry of Trade and Industry just issued a new ultimatum to retailers in the country. The direction aims at having retailers display Sierra Leonean products in their shops and sets a three-month deadline for market operators to abide by the new rules. The ultimatum was mainly directed at supermarket retailers who, unlike the open market, do not feature locally sourced products. According to the Ministry, this prevents a significant group of consumers in Sierra Leone – especially foreigners – from buying local products.

Measure well received by local supermarkets

The measure was welcome by all stakeholders in the market, both retailers, consumers, traders and local authorities. Hajaratu Sesay, a representative for the Kroo Town market, expected the new regulations to improve business opportunities for local producers and asked for the government to support them, especially farmers, with policies that provide for an increased supply to match additional demand. Equally, individual traders in the open market you serve supermarkets congratulated the government and believe the measure will generate sales that will make up for the business lost from the increase in the fuel price.

Unlike with other recent ultimatums imposed on the grocery retail sector, which have drawn widespread criticism and led to the closure of some supermarkets, retailers surveyed also agreed with the measure, saying they are happy to have local products in shops.

Modest results?

According to the government, the three-month ultimatum to start selling locally-made products has the main objective of increasing the internal revenue the trade sector generates in Sierra Leone. The results would be attained with a growth in the sales of local producers and in shifting shopping habits of supermarket consumers towards buying local produced goods.

According to the Trendtype Traditional and Modern Grocery Trade dashboard, sales through supermarkets in Sierra Leone account for only 2.7% of grocery retail sales in Sierra Leone, corresponding to just over $21 million. Seeing that the government’s ultimatum did not go as far as requiring supermarket chains from exclusively selling locally sourced products, it will only cover a portion of that value. Additionally, given that, according to the government, the modern sector caters also for foreign consumers, it should be expected that these will be quite inflexible on the basket of products. The measure should, therefore, only achieve very modest results.