Survey shows why Ghanaians like Chinese products

The results of a survey which outlines the reasons why Ghanaians prefer goods manufactured in China to goods from other parts of the world, particularly Europe and the US has been published.

A Chinese publication Xinhua which conducted the survey in July 2009, said it found that, “Ghanaians’ wrong perception about goods imported from China has gradually changed with the result that there is currently high patronage of all sorts of goods made in China.”

The report indicated that the survey traced the development to a gamut of Chinese goods found on Ghana’s local markets. It added that the presence of Chinese products on the Ghanaian market has offered Ghanaian consumers the opportunity to buy goods that “they want and not what they need.”

These items include clothing, canned foods, electronics and mobile phones. The report added that the business people who import Chinese products into Ghana “want to maximize satisfaction and profits.”

40 of the respondents, who are mostly importers, according to the report said Chinese products meet international standards and questioned if Ghanaians have the purchasing power for the type and quality of goods sent to the markets of the developed countries.

There has been a flooding of the Ghanaian consumer market with Chinese products, and this has been described as “dumping”, the report indicates however that, the description of the situation as “dumping” and the “flooding of the Ghanaian market with inferior goods is propaganda by the western media”.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi