Advertisement

Different prices for sachet water after price increase

Library photoMarkets, especially those in Accra have been flooded with the new water sachet products sold at lower prices than popular brands following the recent increase in the price of sachet water.

As a result, there are currently two prices for sachet water with some selling what is described as the ‘recognised products’ at 15 pesewas per sachet or GH¢1.80 per bag while most of the new products sell at 10 pesewas for a sachet and between GH¢1.30 and GH¢1.80 for a bag.

About 20 of the new sachet brands have been discovered at Odorkor, a suburb of Accra.  Some of the new products did not have either the Ghana Standard Authourity’s logo or the Food and Drugs Authourity’s registration number to indicate they were certified products.

Sachet water traders, particularly hawkers in markets, at traffic intersection points and other public places are now compelled to announce the prices of their products to attract customers.

Bargaining in the Street

“I shout to inform the buyer that my water is for 10 pesewas and not 15 pesewas like the others. And by so doing I sell more because if you do not do that the buyers ask for the price and when it is 15 pesewas they go to the next person,” said Mabel Mensah, a sachet water seller at the Odorkor transport station.

She said the popular products, including Standard Water, Mobile, Voltic, Ice Cool, and Special Ice were usually preferred by consumers because they claimed those  tasted good but “ if I sell those ones I will not make more profit. what I am selling is cheap and because most people want to save some money, they buy mine.”

Another hawker at the Beyeeman Traffic Interchange on the Kaneshie–Accra Road in Accra, Mavis Yaa Bonsu, said sometimes consumers bargained for a reduction since they started selling a sachet at 15 pesewas  “I have no choice than sell my water for 15 pesewas because most passengers in the traffic want the recognised products and a bag of that is expensive.”

Operators Concern

The Marketing Manager of the Cob-A Industries Limited, producers of Standard Drinking Water, Kofi Ghansah, told the Daily Graphic that “all the big players in the industry agreed to sell a bag of sachet water for GH¢1.80 and retailers were expected to sell a sachet for 15 pesewas”.

He said some smaller companies with no permits from the Food and Drugs Authority and Ghana Standards Authority who produced the water at their backyards and also avoided water and electricity bills as well as evaded the payment of social security contributions for their workers “were responsible for the price variations.”

Mr Ghansah said the small players sold their products at a cheaper rate to retailers who also sold it at 10 pesewas to the unsuspecting customer who did not know the source of the water.

When Daily Graphic asked the President of the Sachet Water Producers Association, Mr Magnus Nunoo, about the price variation of sachet water on the market, he said the association was aware of the situation and was working on it.

He said the influx of the new products was not a new phenomenon because whenever there was a price change “we see many people entering the market but they go out of business in no time.”

“Cheap things are expensive you know” Mr Nunoo said, adding that the new producers used shallow wells which could be highly contaminated with sewage water from septic tanks in their homes.

Mr Nunoo said the association had started  a campaign to alert consumers on the dangers of consuming the uncertified products. Again, he said the association had scheduled a meeting with officials of the Food and Drugs Authority and “this issue would be on the table”.

The Head of Public Relations at the Ghana Standard Authority, Mr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako, said some of the new producers were criminally minded as they imitated the logo of the standard authority and placed it on their product to deceive consumers.

“It is a criminal offence, and unless you are not caught, you will be prosecuted for the crime.”

He said the Ghana Standard Authority had been publishing the names of producers who were duly certified in the media “but is it unfortunate that consumers do no look at what is published to patronise only those brands.”

To rid the market of the illegal producers, Mr Amponsah-Bediako said the authourity conducted market surveillance and “if any operator is found engaging in illegal business of operating without permit it should be reported and the product is redrawn from the market.”

Nonetheless, he said “because most of them knew their products were unwholesome, they sold it at obscure places but if consumers did not buy they would be put out of business.”The irony is that they know many consumers do not look at what they are buying.”

Standard and Quality

Mr Amponsah-Bediako said eight companies had been closed down since the beginning of the year “but this number is nothing compared to the number of operators in the system.”

Following a nationwide survey by the Ghana Chemical Society, which revealed that 85 per cent of sachet water produced in the country was below the quality standards, the Food and Drugs Board launched a clamp down on illegal sachet producers and suspended the operation of eight producers.

By Emelia Ennin Abbey/Daily Graphic/Ghana

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |