The store could almost go unnoticed by passers. It does not stand out as anything remarkable. Nevertheless, if you take your time, have a look at the shelves and read the labels, you will be surprised. In less than an hour, over a few square metres, we will actually make a tour around the world.

On the first picture (right) what do you see? Sardines from Morocco, strawberry and apricot jam from France, jam made in Burkina (mango, pineapple and goyava), Thai rice (of good quality, 800 CFA francs/kg) and couscous from Tunisia! We have just “visited” 5 countries on 3 different continents.

On the picture to the left, next to pasta from Ghana, there is a partial view of cane sugar from Burkina, then pasta from Togo and Ivory Coast and below there is canned tomato paste. All the cans are labelled “Made in Italy”, but all tomato content is Chinese ! The tomato paste is sometimes conditioned in cans in Italy. The importer buys whole containers of 200 litre barrels of Chinese tomato pulp concentrate), and sometimes the product is canned elsewhere, as the importing company prefers processing at least part of the production abroad.

 On the next picture (above, right) there are bags of salt with no indication of origin, there are bottles of vinegar from Burkina, next to coloured alcohol vinegar bottles imported from France. On a lower shelf to the far left you see bags of Bonnet Rouge milk powder (a Dutch product). Then palm oil from Abidjan, Savor cotton oil from the SNCITEC (a subsidiary of the SOFITEX cotton company in Burkina). On these SAVOR oil cans, we are likely to be seeing the words “guaranteed 80% GMO” next year (see the previous abc Burkina newsletter). Enfin à Further on, again palm oil from Ivory Coast and finally olive oil from France.

Here (left) , on the top shelf we find a variety of milk powder packages. On the left hand side the bags are unlabelled and the powder (from milk in which the cream has sometimes been removed and replaced by vegetable fats) was bought in bulk (25kg batches) and then divided up and packaged by the shop owner. The 25 kg bags are subject to an import tax of a mere 5% ! We then see the famous Nido milk powder (from the Nestlé multinational) and another brand, Viva Lait (Canada, France). Below there are meat pies from Denmark, various kinds of poultry pie from the U.S., France and Denmark, followed by sardines and mackerel in tomato sauce from Thailand, and again mackerel and tuna from Ghana. Further down there is a display of margarine from the Netherlands and Ghana, mayonnaise from the Netherlands, the U.S. and France and at the end mustard from France and the Netherlands.

Finally on the picture above (right) we can see tea from Sri Lanka, Chinese chips, chocolate from Ivory Coast and Turkey, biscuits from The United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, France and Turkey. Not a single brand from Burkina, not even maize biscuits !

In our picture gallery we are setting up a section called "Food and Globalisation," where you will be able to see Chinese mushrooms (canned in Liberia), sausage from Brazil, mackerel from Chile, alcoholic beverages from Belgium, Germany, France and India…

What does this quick tour tell us? Most obviously that the impact of globalisation is clearly before us right here in a small local store, serving an area of just a few blocks: : its products originate from 22 different countries (7 in Asia, 6 in Europe, 6 in Africa – of which 4 in West Africa- 3 in the Americas).

Some points should be made: 7 products from Burkina – this is a clear improvement on the situation a few years ago. At the time I did not find any domestic Togolese products in Lomé and nothing from Benin in Cotonou, when I went around some grocery stores. But why do we not find Burkinabè rice in Burkina ? Parboiled rice is produced in this country, in Sourou, and I have personally been able to have it for several years. It is just as good as Thai rice and much cheaper (400 CFA francs /kg compared to 800 for Thai rice).

The government has announced the setting up of a tomato processing industry. But it should also come up with measures to support it, such as a 35% tax on competing imported tomato paste! (as foreseen in the new tariff band of the Common External Tariff, CET, heralded almost a year ago). It is still however unknown which products are to be included and there is no information on the present state of negotiations. Failing such action the new processing plant could quickly go bankrupt, as was the case with the Savana venture at the time.

Consumers and farmers should join hands in demands for an effective food and farm policy. This is the only way to protect ourselves against poor quality products and to develop a vigorous domestic processing industry.

Koudougou, May 27th 2010
Maurice Oudet
Director; SEDELAN
Photography : Andreas Göpfert of SEDELAN