Selina Bebaako-Mensah, Founder and Creative Director of the multi-award winning Ghanaian fashion brand, Selina Beb has shared with producers of Ghanaian products some points to consider in order to push their products onto the international market.
According to her, the first step in making sure that your products get to the global market is for the producer to always be ready.
Talking to Eunice Tornyi on e. TV Ghana’s African Women’s Voices she mentioned, “It’s not just saying I want to go global or I want to go international. You have to be ready and make sure you have the capacity to produce enough to meet the kind of demand you’re going to get once you meet the kind of international exposure”.
She stated that the orders will come in abundance and once they do, producers should always be ready to meet the orders they get.
Selina noted that it is important for producers to always ensure that they have the best quality of product because, “over there they don’t joke, especially in Europe and America. So you always have to make sure to meet international standards”.
She furthered that they should also make sure to conform with whatever they are required to conform to when it comes to the kind of product they produce.
Citing an example she said, “If it’s food, make sure it’s FDA approved. FDA in any other country you’re sending it to should also accept it and approve of it. If it’s leather products like what I do then you have to make sure the kind of leather you’re using is quality and is approved in whichever market you’re trying to penetrate into”.
Selina however mentioned that, out of the many other points there are, she believes producers should focus on these few if they really want their products to make it to the international market.
By: Gyamfuah Owusu-Ackom