Food Consumption Patterns Part 2

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Cost and the Entrance of Prepackaged Fake Nutritious Foods
Where we can learn more about consumer interest in cost, and the evolution of prepackaged foods
on the popular Haitian market is with regard to those that Haitians thought were healthy and which,
as seen in Section 5, have been relied on as ingredients for making protein rich baby foods and the
remontan, and fortifying malts and fruit juices: specifically cheese and condensed milk, both
products increasingly being substituted with lower cost “fake” products. i And here, any doubt
about the power of pricing over the quality of ingredients can be put to rest by considering the
success of low cost products such as those sold by what is arguably the most successful Haitian
food enterprise, Bongu (Deka Group S.A.).
Bongu, like most Haitian corporations, specializes almost entirely in importing and distributing
products produced and manufactured outside of Haiti. In the past decade Bongu has taken a major
share of markets in spaghetti from Princessa (Bocel Group of the Dominican Republic), salted
crackers from Guarina (Molinos Modernos of Gutemala), condensed milk from Carnation (United
States), processed cheese from La Vache Qui Rit (France), protein shakes from Sport Shake
(United States), and Corn Flakes from Shurfi (United States). The most obvious way that Bongu
has gained market share is by undercutting the competition in cost (see Figure 21). 1
Bongu Products
1
in the context of the critique made here, it should be mentioned that directors of Bongu have expressed to the
consultant regret over the decline in local production and an interest in elevating the nutritional quality of foods on
the popular market