Egypt's local products boom amid boycott of Western brands over Gaza war

Dozens of logo directories have been widely shared on various accounts, pages and groups on social media platforms listing famous Western brands which the public has decided to impose a ban on.

The list includes Nestle, Puma, McDonald's, P&G, Amazon, Starbucks and Carrefour with some calling to extend it to anything "Made in UAE".

It is common to see consumers now asking about a specific brand's country of origin or about an alternative product, an action that has increased the circulation of local alternatives. 

Women lead the boycott calls mainly because they get to do the shopping for house needs. "I'm sowing the seeds of belonging in my kids and their schools are on the same mission," said Amira Gamal, housewife.

Gamal, 39, has been avoiding French products for her small family of four since the cartoons' crisis and now she is extending the boycott. "Thanks to make-up, stylist and chef bloggers, I am now aware of Egyptian brands with good quality that I did not know before," she told Global South World. 

In a downtown Cairo suburb, Atallah Market joined the boycott movement branding itself as "the first Egyptian-only Goods Supermarket". The digitally praised decision facilitated shopping for boycotters and boosted the grocery store's sales in a few weeks that they now have a daily delivery schedule to cover all of Cairo. They use the common slogan "It is not a boycott, but an abandonment".

The century-old Egyptian local drink Spiro Spathis benefited from the boycott as it recorded an increasing demand without enough supply ahead of giant soft drink industry players in the Egyptian market like Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

In 2022, PepsiCo's net revenue in Africa, Middle East and South Asia grew 7%. Unfavourable foreign exchange reduced the company's net revenue growth outside the United States by 3%, primarily due to currency declines including the Egyptian pound. Pepsi was Egypt's preferred carbonated drinks brand last year, according to Statista.

Originally founded by a Greek entrepreneur before being acquired by an Egyptian food & beverage company in the 1990s, Spathis recently announced a hiring call for over 50 new employees to meet the rising demand in the market.

"It is the power of the people who stand on solid ground not to be limited to a certain social or economic class. We are not only making a statement with the boycott but we hope the idea lives this time and that, in the long run, it leads to the economic collapse of Israel," an Egyptian Android developer named Hasnaa told Global South World. Only a week after the war broke out, Hasnaa launched Qadyaty as a mobile application that serves as a database for boycotters. 

In five weeks, the boycott application that was first shared on a Telegram channel recorded a million and a half downloads in Egypt and then Saudi Arabia by large with a daily average of 100k downloads. Today, the app is on Google Play and Huawei AppGallery with an iOS version coming soon. Soon Qadyaty will be launched in Saudi Arabia whose data has been compiled, and then Jordan and Tunisia to follow. No marketing was done except for word of mouth.

"We do not blacklist brands according to their countries of origin but based on their relation with Israel. It is important to set a boycott criteria," the young programmer explained, adding "If there is an Arab company that invests or cooperates with the enemy or even issues sympathy statements, it will also be boycotted".

Qadyaty, which translates to "My Cause", depends on dozens of volunteers manually scanning product barcodes in supermarkets to be stored in the app. Anytime a consumer scans a barcode when shopping, it will reveal if it's on the boycott list. 

"I'm telling my children this brand gives money to Palestine and that to Israel so they know their way," said one customer while another prioritizes Egyptian products whether the foreign brands support Israel or not.