Corn, Soybean & Bamboo: Possible uses in Somalia?

[AbdiWahab252]

Have you looked at it from another angle ? I believed the major industries that you referenced were state owned. As with a vast majority of state owned industries, there are many inefficiencies, lack of business acumen and the result is you don't operate it to produce quality products liked by the consumer at a good price.

A smarter option would have been to sell the factory to a consortium of Somali businessmen or foreign company and have them produce the product.

[Koronto77]

With the exception of Somali-Fruit, I believe most of these manufacturing plants were State owned. Even Mareereey did not gain popularity with the people, sugar used to be imported all the way from Brazil. In the case of Mareereey, it was bad PR and poor management that caused its demise. The mere mention of Mareereey sugar used to put people off, we're talking about something as essential as sugar here and people prefer a brand name.

[AbdiWahab252]

Negative, my brother. Its not the brand which turned them away but the poor quality. Somalia's demise into socialism ruined manufacturing. I remember how difficult it used to be a business person. Finding hard currency was a struggle, getting an LOC was impossible without a government crony, and worse of all even getting $$ from your USD account was a chore that required a bribe.

The only reason SomaliFruit and Sombana were successful was because they were producing for export and the government earned lots of tax revenue from them.

[dawwa9]

Somalia (at least in Puntland and Somaliland) over 90% of the food is import food. Mostly from India and Carabaha

Sad situation

Only Mango, Banana and Mellon was from Somalia (south)

[Koronto77]

Getting a government issued Somali passport was a a major headache too; welcome to African bureaucracy. Somalia was no worse than Kenya when it came failed government policies, the whole continent suffers from this problem. State owned industry can only flourish if it has the support of its people, but when the people are very much tuned-in to what brands their colonial masters have left them with, it becomes very difficult to turn them in to loyal customers.

I remember my father telling us that when he was young, they used to order their clothes through an Italian catalog company and have it shipped to them. And if you wanted to make a telephone call to your neighbor, you would first speak with an operator in Rome and then be connected to your neighbor. All of this changed with nationalizing, but of course, many things were also lost.

Bad government comes from bad people. Failed bureaucracy is only a representation of its people.


dawwa9,

What is even sadder is that most of the foods imported in to P/land & S/land comes from Ethiopia, instead of southern Somalia. Many things including variety of fruits and veggies, grains and chicken can just as easily be imported from the South, helping the local Somali farmer, instead of helping an Ethiopian farmer. All of this is done through businessmen who have connections with certain brokers and who only care about their bottom line.

[Mad May]

Its not all bad, Kenyans from Mandera come to B/Xaawo to shop for fruit/vegatables

[dawwa9]

Nobody eats chicken or fish in Somalia either. They all looked at me as if I was crazy for liking it.

Even in places like Bosaso eating fish is not that common, they were all red meat maniacs and camel/goat meat is king there.

[AbdiWahab252]

Kenya was light years ahead of Somalia in the 1980s. My Aabe used to travel to Kenya to get vital equipment and inputs for the factory. Kenya had taken a mixed economy approach and allowed private enterprise to grow and prosper. It also encouraged foreign investment and positioned itself as the center of commerce for the East Africa region.

That same foreign investment would save Kenya because foreigners were not going to allow their investments to go up in smoke unlike Somalia which had very limited foreign investment or strategic importance after the cold war.

[Koronto77]

dawwa9,

People usually tend to stick to what they're accustomed to, even if its not the best thing for them.



AW,

Kenya may have been ahead of Somalia regarding foreign investment and a more laxed policy of privatization, but they were always plagued by corruption. Loyalty in Kenya is only a few shillings away and anyone can buy in to whatever sector they choose. In the case of Somalia, socialism discouraged privatization & foreign investment. The government's policies regarding privatization were to be expected of all socialist/communist countries and as for foreign investment, who said all foreign investment is good? Argentina is a prime example of what happens when a country relies too heavily on foreign investment. The only winners are the foreign corporations, most governments even give them huge tax breaks to keep them in their countries.

As for privatization, it was improving towards the late 80s and right before the war. Export industry was finally looking-up and you had small business owners exporting everything from livestock to lobsters and even food. Somalia was finally exiting socialism and was slowly moving towards a free-market system, but we will never know what the future held, now will we?