Seventy four percent of Fast Moving Consumer Goods products surveyed across 19 product categories with high local production potential are imported, according to findings by research and advisory firm, Konfidants, conducted in December last year.

The survey conducted in December 2020 covered nine leading supermarkets and two popular fuel station marts in Accra.  

They are 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).

According to the findings, 5,943, representing 74% brands counted across all 11 retail outlets were foreign brands.

This is however an improvement on the 2019 survey when only 18% of goods surveyed were Made-In-Ghana.

The best performing category of Made-In-Ghana goods is Water (with 60% of all Water on sale produced in Ghana). This is followed by Eggs (with 55% MIG), Fruits & Vegetables (52% MIG) and Spreads (44.74% MIG).

The worst performing categories are Biscuits & Confectionaries (6% MIG), Noodles & Pasta (6%) and Utensils & Cutlery (7% MIG).

As was the case in 2019, food products that is fresh, processed and manufactured dominate the 19 categories in which Made-In-Ghana goods are visible in the supermarkets. 14 of the 19 categories are food products.

Consequently, all the best five performing categories are food related.

However, the performance of these dominant food product categories is still not good enough. The upset of this year is the sharp decline in Made-In-Ghana eggs from 93%, in the previous survey to 55%.

The research also revealed some disturbing trends in products such as jams and marmalades whereby only 2% are Made-In-Ghana though 58% of Fresh Fruits on the shelves are Made-In-Ghana.

On price competitiveness, it was found that 73% of Made-In-Ghana goods were cheaper than foreign ones, although the price differentials were marginal.

While the overwhelming pricing advantage observed in 2019 has shrunked, the impressive trend of improved branding and packaging of Made-In-Ghana goods has continued, the survey noted.

While foreign brands continue to enjoy a market perception of superiority in packaging, and quality, evidence from the two surveys point to the shrinking of the “packaging gap” as several MIG goods are catching up with foreign brands in packaging.

Made-In-Ghana goods have also continued to improve significantly with packaging and branding. This improvement in branding was noted across all 19 categories surveyed.