CAIRO—For hours, Antar Sultan, a wholesaler of food products in Cairo, called marketing officials at the soda water company Spiro Spats to get a large shipment to compensate him for the Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola bottles stacked in his warehouses and found no one to accept them, until he finally had a promise to fulfill his request within a few days.
Spiro Spats, a local company named after its founder (Greek national), which is credited with the appearance of the first bottle of soda water in Egypt in 1920, is currently owned by 3 Egyptian brothers who inherited it from their father, who bought it from "Al-Khawaja Al-Greek" in 1998.
The company, which found itself spreading rapidly on the local market, after being content – less than a month ago – with sales plans with limited goals and regions, is the most fortunate among many local companies that are also receiving popular demand, in the context of the ongoing boycott campaigns against the products of Western companies supporting Israel.
While the Palestinian resistance operation "Al-Aqsa Flood" nightmare frightened Israel, on the morning of the seventh of last October, responded to it with "war crimes" against civilians in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian "flood" poured cold and peace on the national industry in Egypt, so the local product began to restore the confidence of consumers, who raised the slogans "categorical" and "encourage the product of your country" and "proudly made in Egypt".
Furan Spats
Overnight, the owners of Spiro Spats found themselves facing a tough test, hundreds of round-the-clock calls from retail outlets and restaurant chains, looking for the alternative product to world-branded soda water.
The company's output, which employs about 60,3 employees, has tripled in less than a month, opening the door to employment for thousands of job seekers.
Says Antar Sultan, wholesaler of Al Jazeera Net: "I communicated after trouble with officials Spiro Spatits, and I am currently waiting for a large order, expected to arrive within days. This is after the insistence of retailers' representatives on the need to provide alternative local products."
As for the reasons for the reluctance to use Western products, the spokesman explained that consumers "are as if they found their way in the province to support the local product (..) against companies they see as pro-Israel."
A consumer looking for the country of origin of a product in a store in Cairo (Al Jazeera Net)
Bab Rizq
In the northern Nile Delta city of Mansoura, um Karma, owner of an online store selling food products, says that the first benefit from the boycott of Western products is the remarkable demand for local products competing with their Western counterparts.
The Egyptian woman's shop, which sells frozen food products, has also benefited from the boycott campaigns, which are increasing day by day, um Karma explains: "The turnout for our products is good and has become much better after the boycott (..) With consumers accepting local products that we are developing in terms of quality and packaging."
In the Faisal area of Giza Governorate (west of Cairo), Essam Hassan, owner of a food store agrees with the calls for a boycott, and says to Al Jazeera Net: "In support of the boycott, I decided to close refrigerators Pepsi, Coca-Cola, dairy products and Western chocolate, and store milk powder and washing powders."
He adds: "People refuse to buy these products and we support them, despite our near loss, the blood of the Palestinians is more precious to us, and sometimes the buyer asks whether this product is with us or against us (boycott) and we support the local alternative, in support of the Egyptian industry and a victory for Al-Aqsa."
In parallel, large chains and other fast-food providers owned by Western companies appeared remarkably devoid of consumers and patrons, unlike usual less than a month ago. It has also become common to see citizens searching through mobile applications for the origin of a product using a barcode.
Popular demand for local products in Giza (Al Jazeera Net)
We won't drink their blood.
Friday and Saturday – as a weekend – are an opportunity for Talia Wael to pressure her parents to go to the McDonald's branch in downtown Cairo and win a small toy along with a quick meal and ice cream.
However, in her eighth spring, the child now carries the concerns of the issue of children of her generation and her skin in the Gaza Strip, including martyrs, injured and displaced persons, after she was surrounded on television, at school, at home and on the street, with talks of boycott and support for Palestine.
With the innocence of children, says the daughter of Abdeen neighborhood to Al Jazeera Net: "Israel took Palestine purely (pieceme), and the remaining (left) is Gaza and only (only).. The children are dying, along with the sixes and the men, and the whole place is destroyed, whether hospitals or schools."
"We will not drink the blood of our brothers. (McDonald's) sends meals to soldiers in Israel for free," Talia said when asked why she and her family boycott Western products.
Talia's stance on the boycott was not much different from that of Reham Khaled, an Arabic teacher in Faisal (west of Cairo), who stresses that she, her family, all her neighbors and co-workers are currently boycotting all Western products.
She adds to Al Jazeera Net, they use local alternatives, although they do not find the alternative dispensing, stressing: "These products are Zionist companies or support Israel, and boycott the benefit of the country and increase job opportunities, and the boycott is the least we can contribute to support Palestine."
One of the restaurants boycott has seemed empty of patrons on Haram Street (Al Jazeera Net)
Against high prices
Mahmoud al-Asqalani, president of the Citizens Against High Prices Association for Consumer Protection, sits in a small café in downtown Cairo, sipping a cup of coffee that costs only 7 pounds (a quarter of a dollar).
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Asqalani says about the effectiveness of the boycott weapon in reducing the price: "What I drink now is no different from the coffee (Star Bucks) similar, and the latter price exceeds 100 pounds ($ 3.33), so what complex inputs that benefit Egypt? However, the Western company earns in dollars in light of the hard currency crisis in Egypt."
Al-Asqalani sees in the positives of the boycott the beginning of the search for the local national product, expecting the boycott to continue for a long time and its continuous recovery of the national product. In this regard, he called for taking advantage of the positive situation and providing a suitable environment to replace the Western product that supports Israel.
He added that the success of the local product will save the dollar credits that Egypt loses in importing raw materials and production requirements, in light of the crisis of the decline of the local currency.
Local brands attract consumers by placing the Palestinian flag on a street in Cairo (Al Jazeera Net)
Spoils and pros
In general, economist Abdul Nabi Abdul Muttalib believes that the war on Gaza came with calls to boycott Western goods, which may be the beginning of an increase in demand for local goods, and encourage local producers to enter into and inject new investments in order to produce alternative goods to imported goods.
This, according to Abdel Muttalib to Al Jazeera Net, helps to preserve the Egyptian pound from collapse, and reduce the exit of foreign exchange. As well as increasing domestic investments, and increasing GDP. Increased employment opportunities, as a result of the expansion of national factories or the launch of alternative factories for products that people are calling for a boycott.
The boycott is also working to attract foreign direct investment in industries that have achieved popularity and profits in order to benefit from profits, according to expert Abdul Muttalib. It encourages industry, local manufacturers and national capital to meet the market needs of boycotted products. In addition, local investments generate a wide range of benefits, feeder companies and ancillary activities alongside factories.