Business relations between food distributors and artisan and organic food producers are becoming increasingly symbiotic and mutually beneficial. With declining demand for imported brands and growing demand for local products, distributors are ultimately realizing that they have to increase the domestic portion of their product portfolio. Domestic food brands are witnessing a surge in local demand for their products. They are eager to seize the opportunity in order to boost their market reach.
Thriving business
The de facto capital controls and the collapse of the lira have made importing goods from abroad a challenging and costly task causing a radical shift in demand towards local products. CEO of Ets Antoine Massoud (EAM), a distributor of food products, said that compared with pre-crisis levels their turnover of local alcoholic drinks increased 75 percent while their sales of honey doubled, and of sweet snacks soared founder of Ayadina. He said they plan to expand their operations by adding a kitchen, a storage space, and by hiring more female workers for their handmade products. Ayadina will be using the fresh dollars generated from its exports for the expansion and the revenues from its local sales to operate the business and pay the salaries of its employees. Distributors are increasing their portfolio of local food brands in order to accommodate to the shift in demand. The share of local products in EAM’s turnover has increased from five percent to 20 percent. A distributor’s exposure to currency depreciation is 100 percent in the case of foreign brands while it is much less for local brands, Massoud said.
