Abundance of out-of-date products in the market: authority warns consumers

As Christmas and the New Year’s Eve are nearing, candies, chocolates and other products of the same kind are abounding in the streets of Antananarivo. Unfortunately, these products don’t always meet the appropriate standards in terms of health.

In light of that situation, the Ministry of Commerce and Public Health organized on December 18, at the Tranompokon’olona Isotry (Isotry Theater), a sensitization conference on the danger of buying and consuming out-of-date products. The conference is an official warning message from the authority, targeted to local consumers. The two Ministries collaborate together to curb the spreading of non-standard products on the market through the implementation of measures that will severely penalize those who are caught red-handed.

The ultimate objective in the joint effort to eradicate the spread of out-of-date products in the local markets is to get all imported products to meet appropriate health standards and to establish a fair competition between imported goods with locally manufactured ones. The latter issue is something that Malagasy industrialists and entrepreneurs have been striving to accomplish for many years now. But up to this point, their effort has not yet paid off. And to put it bluntly, the future of local industry is not very promising given the current state of affairs.