By Amir Makar
CAIRO: In a move to push consumers to buy Egyptian products, companies, manufacturers and service providers issued advertisements for discounts on sales on Dec. 16 as part of the ‘Buy Egyptian’ campaign, first announced by television presenter Amr Adib.
“Is it bad or a disgrace to ask of you to buy [just] Egyptian products for one day?” Adib asked on his talk show “Al-Qahera Al-Youm” last Sunday, issuing the call for the campaign.
“[For] one day,” he said, “we’ll buy all our necessities, clothing, food and drink, Egyptian.”
Adib said that this will “support the Egyptian economy … and the Egyptian factories. The money that you’re spending is coming back to you, because more workers will keep working, more houses will remain open, and more sales taxes will be paid to the government.”
The campaign was then promoted on Facebook pages and groups, including “We Are All Khaled Said” page, which includes almost 1.8 million subscribers, and then was adopted by Egyptian companies.
Among the participants in the discounts and offers for the campaign on Friday are reportedly Zahran for Household products (10 percent), AGA for Drinks and Frozen Vegetables (10 percent), Faragello (10 percent only in Alexandria outlet), City Mall for Computers (5 percent), Oriental Weavers (15-50 percent), Mashaweer for Deliveries (25 percent), Mostafa Al-Sallab outlets (10-50 percent on Ceramica Royale products), and others.
EgyptAir will also participate, continuing discounts on tickets (20 percent) until May 2012.
The calls for the campaign were cautiously welcomed by economists however, who feared the campaign, while well-intentioned, would not be enough on its own.
Egypt’s foreign reserves have fallen to around $20 billion as the Egyptian pound continues depreciating slowly against the dollar, trading at 6.0190. The vital tourism sector is yet to recover from the hit it took earlier this year after the January uprising.
Meanwhile, Egypt is struggling to rein in its budget deficit and is reconsidering a loan form the International Monetary Fund. It’s questionable how much encouraging domestic consumption will do to alleviate these issues.
“[It’s] beneficial for the country, especially in this critical moment for the economy,” said Magda Kandil, executive director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, “however, it requires further procedures to be undertaken to support it.”
Kandil said that the products themselves must be enhanced, and work needs to be done on the customs tariffs, especially regarding consumer and luxury goods.
“’Buy Egyptian’ alone doesn’t guarantee getting out of the bottleneck,” she said.
Kandil’s concerns were echoed by Angus Blair, economist and head of research at Beltone Financial, who said it was “admirable that people started a campaign to do it,” however, he was concerned whether there were enough Egyptian products for sale that would be significant enough to make a difference.
“High tech equipment, except for televisions, aren’t available,” Blair said, “but it’s good that it’s making everyone aware of the need. Much more needs to be done but it’s a useful start.”
Blair also said he’d like to see a campaign that would improve the quantity of the agricultural yield and to cut the wastage of food products, “as Egypt imports a sizeable percentage of its food products from abroad.”
Calls for the campaign were not without criticism however, as a popular comment started circulating on Facebook against it.
“The logical and realistic response to this ‘Buy Egyptian’ campaign (products that are polluted, cancerous, and expensive), is that I will not buy Egyptian on Friday nor on any other day,” said the comment,
Aly Abdulrahman, a young lawyer, agreed with the comment and said he’d also buy Egyptian when the product becomes just as affordable, or on par with the quality, as foreign products, saying that he’s “not supposed to support rich businessmen that abuse their poor workers.”
He added, “As for supporting the economy, that’s the government’s job not mine, or else why do they take 20 percent of our income? So that they get palaces in Qattameya Heights and then come rip us off and ask us to save the economy?”
