Local products such as fruit and vegetables have long been viewed in West Africa as inferior and stale. Now it is mainly young entrepreneurs who are doing a lot of advertising for local consumption.
It is shortly before eight o’clock and still pleasantly cool in Mountougoula, especially in the shade of the orange trees. They are the heart of the “Latiland Organic Farm”, an agricultural operation less than an hour’s drive from Mali’s capital Bamako.
We work here without chemicals, but with a well thought-out system. It was founded by Latifa Baby. After finishing school and studying, she initially worked in marketing and corporate communications.
There was no appreciation for local products
But even then she knew exactly: “I don’t want to sit in an office.” Nevertheless, the 32-year-old had to do some convincing in order to be able to convert the five-hectare family property step by step into an agricultural company.
In addition to her enthusiasm for growing fruit and vegetables, she was especially tired of seeing expensive imported goods from North Africa and Europe in supermarkets and stalls while there was no appreciation for local products.
In South Africa’s supermarkets, imported products dominate
“It breaks my heart. Oranges from Morocco cost the equivalent of 2.30 euros per kilo. If they come from Mali, they only cost about a fifth. Anyone who does agriculture knows how much work that is.” Mali is no exception.
Imported products dominate the supermarkets in West Africa in particular. No problem buying dog food from Belgium, chocolate from Switzerland or wine from Argentina. The local offer includes juice, peanuts and cashew nuts, spices and a few types of flour.
Center Songai and other initiatives want to change something
There have been initiatives for many years that want to change that. In Porto Novo, the capital of Benin, the Dominican Godfrey Nzamujo, who comes from Nigeria, founded the Center Songhai in 1985, which now has branches in several countries.
Around the same time, the then President Thomas Sankara, who is revered as a folk hero to this day, campaigned for local consumption in Burkina Faso. Today it is mainly young, well-educated women who advertise this and want to get local products out of their niche.
Cucumbers and carrots via WhatsApp and Facebook
To do this, they are breaking new ground. Latifa Baby, for example, sells oranges, courgettes, cucumbers and carrots on WhatsApp and Facebook. Your customers are young and international. “I have no money for advertising on television or radio,” she says pragmatically.
She also presents her harvest at events and shows, for example, how to make a smoothie from beetroot. The “Made in Mali” association is helpful. The initiators organize markets and, in addition to fruit and vegetables, offer locally produced cosmetics and teas.
Excellent company
“We can produce great things here. We have to be proud of that,” demands Latifa Baby. How extensive the range can be is demonstrated by Eric Assigbe a good 1,200 kilometers further south-west in Togo’s capital Lome.
He is the managing director of “Togosime”, a shop that sells juices and oils as well as rice and locally produced sparkling wine and wine. It was founded in 2013 by the lawyer Lucia Allah-Assogba, when she was just 22 years old. She has now received numerous awards for her entrepreneurial spirit.
Eric Assigbe stands behind the counter of the little shop down a side street in the center and has just sold a pack of Fonio; gluten-free West African millet, which has just been rediscovered and is sometimes even traded as a new superfood.
Local production creates work
He sees healthy food, the ingredients of which are known, as the main motivation among customers. There are now an estimated 700 to 800 processed and packaged products from Togo – not counting the fruits and vegetables from the roadside.
According to Assigbe, they not only promote health, but also the economy. According to various estimates, around one in two people in Togo has statistically less than 1.90 US dollars a day at their disposal. “Local production, processing and consumption create work”, Eric Assigbe is certain. “A country cannot develop otherwise.”
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