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Market Magic Comes to Ghana Thanks to FAS
By Jill Lee
When Abena Adansi-Bona, of Accra, Ghana, opened her grocery store in 1986, she named it Last Laugh. The name reflects her favorite saying: "He who laughs last, laughs best."
Last June, Adansi-Bona and 26 other
supermarket owners in Ghana had something new to smile about.
They attended a supermarket management workshop sponsored by the
Foreign Agricultural Service’s Emerging Market Office.
"It was very helpful," said Adansi-Bona. "We learned about the display of goods, how you have to keep snack foods separate from detergent."
"You put related products together," adds FAS’ Kim Hoffstrom, who spearheaded a year-long effort to coordinate this workshop. "That way, if someone comes in for coffee and they see sugar or cereal nearby you can increase sales."
The Big Tour
As part of the workshop, the guest speakers toured 10 stores in Ghana, offering management advice.
One stop was Hardees Supermarket in Accra. Nabil M. Basbous, managing director and owner of the supermarket, said he appreciated the insights of Carlos Torres, a supermarket owner from Puerto Rico. Torres formed a cooperative with other supermarket owners in his region, creating a group with millions of dollars in purchasing power. The cooperative even has its own warehouse.
"It was good to hear from people with experience in this field with new ideas," Basbous said.
A Step Up for Developing Nations
This Professional Development Program, or PDP, complements the Cochran program by providing a wide range of training and technical programs related to the food industry and agribusiness. Both programs are part of FAS’ Food Industries Division.
But unlike Cochran, which targets middle-income countries, PDP is generally geared toward less developed nations. Programs are often held in the participants’ own country. Sometimes, as is the case in Ghana, a country may be eligible to send participants to both programs.
Helping Others, Promoting the U.S.
Like the Cochran Program, featured on page 10 of this issue of AgExporter, the PDP’s benefits go two ways. The Ghana workshop helped the local grocery store owners, but it was also designed to increase their awareness of U.S. food products.
Yaw Asante Kwabiah, FAS’ agricultural specialist in Accra, did important post-workshop follow-up, seeing how the workshop affected owners.
"I went to their supermarkets and you could see a real change. They were making use of every available space, price stickers were visible, so were container labels," he said.
Kwabiah is also trying to form a buyers’ group of Ghana importers. This would increase their buying power and make it easier for them to purchase U.S. goods–and it would open access for Ghana’s supermarket owners.
"As far as the buyer group is concerned, it depends on the kind of items they want to buy," said Hardees’ supermarket owner Basbous. "I already import items from England, but I’ve heard that for detergents, the price and variety may be better in the United States, I’ve heard this about some of the food products, too."
Basbous said he would like to attend one of the Food Marketing Institute’s annual conferences in Chicago to hear more about U.S. products.
Conferences Help Make Contacts
Asante Kwabiah’s efforts to form a buyers group have been helped by the supermarket conference.
Kwabiah began working with an importer in Ghana who already buys U.S. goods. They are considering forming a buyers’ group of 10 to 12 importers.
The importers told Asante Kwabiah that while the quality of U.S. food products was good, minimum orders from most U.S. companies are larger than many Ghana buyers could afford.
At the supermarket workshop, one of the speakers gave Kwabiah an important contact in Miami, Fla: Luis Martinez, marketing director for Fleming Companies International, Ltd.
The Miami company is a consolidator, which means it exports food products from several different manufacturers. They offer the convenience of one-source shopping. Consolidators can sometimes sell in smaller quantities, a big plus for the importers of Ghana.
Kwabiah wrote to Martinez at once. Last May, Martinez met with them at the Food Marketing Institute’s annual meeting in Chicago.
"Right now we are just working out how to secure our receivables," said Martinez. "If we can do that, we are willing to export U.S. consumer-ready goods to Ghana."
Kwabiah says that, given enough time, the importers group may
be in a position to bring more value-added, consumer-ready U.S.
foods to Ghana. Meanwhile, Hoffstrom hopes to have another PDP
for supermarket owners in due time. 
"We were thinking about having one on forming trade associations, obtaining credit and working with consolidators," said Hoffstrom. "After that, the Ghana supermarket group may want to travel to the United States to meet with consolidators. They will have graduated to the Cochran program.
For more information on the PDP program contact: Kimberly Hoffstrom, International Program Specialist with FAS’ International Cooperation and Development, Food Industries Division, Washington, D.C. Tel.: (202) 690-0770; Fax: (202) 690-3982; E-mail:
Yaw Asante Kwabiah is an Agricultural specialist with FAS in Accra, Ghana. Tel.: (011) 233-21-775-348 ext 298; Fax: (011) 233-21-778-003.
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The author is a public affairs specialist with the FAS Information Division, USDA, Washington, D.C. Tel.: (202) 720-7939; Fax: (202) 720-1727; e-mail: leejill@fas.usda.gov
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