Comment - Campaign to popularise local products

The Government together with the Mawbima Lanka Foundation (MLF) last week launched Ganna Ape De (Buy Sri Lankan products) campaign to popularise local products. This is a demand side approach to boost local industries and services.

MLF will award selected brands the right to use the "Ganna Ape De" logo, in recognition of that brand being truly Sri Lankan. The program is being implemented by the Ministry of Industrial Development and the Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA).

In today's global economic and trade environment this campaign may be seen as funny and unrealistic.

As a nation we have lost the right time that such a campaign would work well and our neighbour India did it at the correct time and the correct way and succeeded. Mahathma Gandhi started it and he himself practised it and gave the example to the nation.

Sri Lanka made an attempt from 1970-1977 during the regime of the United Front government but failed, as it was not a campaign but a forcible attempt to promote local products.

The campaign ended in 1977 making way for a landslide victory for the opposition as well as the other end of economic policies. Then this new liberal economic order was initiated and continues with slight modifications.

However, it is better late than never and any attempt to promote local products may give a new lease of life to dying local industries facing intense competition by dumping imports.

However, this will come true only if the campaign really identifies the true situation in the market and the campaigners are truly committed about what they say. Mere patriotic slogans would not change anything and will fail in the wake of aggressive advertising campaigns of multinationals in all media.

Today the local market is dominated by imports from simple toothpicks to motorcars. These imported items have grabbed the market because of their low price, high quality and the highly successful promotional campaigns.

If our campaign is to succeed the products should be priced competitively while the quality as well as the campaign should be equally powerful.

Some sectors of the society still believe that the 1970-1977 campaign would have led Sri Lanka to prosperity if the system continued. There was a move to increase local production in agriculture and industries while people were forced to consume local food items by imposing various import restrictions, transport restrictions and promotional campaigns and there was also a program to increase local food production.

However, the mismatch in the supply and demand resulted in a severe shortage of products which made the campaign unpopular. In the industrial sector too government mills manufactured essential products such as textiles.

The Unic Radio and Upali Fiat cars are products that were produced by the local private sector and it was the first sign of the local industrial private sector waking up. The whole process reversed after 1977.

Today we can't go for a similar campaign to promote local products. Firstly, under today's global reality the free choice of the consumer is paramount and you can't enforce restrictions on it.

We have obligations to the World Trade Organisation and various bilateral and multilateral trade agreements which prevents us from imposing import restrictions. Without producing anything new and anything extra we have agreed to various trade agreements and as a result there is a flood of low or zero taxed imports at lower prices.

The high cost of electricity, credit, labour and limitation of input as well as low scale of production make the price of our products always higher than imported products.

These issues have to be addressed to achieve price competitiveness of local products against imports. Increasing local demand with such a campaign will help increase the scale of production to some extent. The quality of local products is not an issue in many instances. However, technology has to be introduced to face the competition effectively.

There are a few Sri Lankan industries that are successful in the local market and always ahead of any imported product. Where water pumps are concerned the Jinasena brand is the most popular. In kitchenware the Odris brand is well known.

Ceramics and porcelain products, floor tiles and wall tiles, potatoes, rice and steel are Sri Lankan brands that are in big demand in the local market.

Similarly if our dairy products are to secure a share of the market, Highland or any brand should be quality products that are no second to Australian or other imported products.

This is not difficult. Already Highland butter is popular among consumers. In all industries the situation is similar.

Today's stagnant Sri Lankan industrial sector, small or large will perform miracles if a market is ensured. For the campaign to be successful the architects should be honest and they should start the campaign from their homes. Indian leaders followed this and in some instances they still follow it.

The society has a negative attitude with their past experience and will not believe that the leaders are honest. If the leaders want people to go for local products while they enjoy all imported luxuries, the campaign would fail miserably.

For the campaign to function smoothly a well focused and wide propaganda campaign is a must. Today multinationals are spending heavily on huge advertising campaigns to sell their products.

People buy most of the products and services not because they are the best in the market but because the advertising campaign had convinced them that it is the best product.

People select milk powder, toothpaste, soap or sausages merely after watching eye-catching advertisements without knowing the consequences.