The founder of Kasapreko, maker of Alomo Bitters, Kwabena Adjei, who has won many awards for his innovations, told Businessdayonline that Nigeria was his biggest market, but regretted the faking of Alomo in the country.
According to Adjei, herbal bitter drinks market is flourishing in Nigeria. The market was deepened with the entry of Alomo Bitters in 2011. Before then, Swedish and German bitters were skeletally marketed in the country and because of the limited distribution there was not much awareness.
However, some people started smuggling Alomo Bitters produced by Kasapreko from Ghana before the product got NAFDAC registration in Nigeria. The product received immediate consumer acceptance as the consumers needed something different from lager beer.
Predictably, between 2011 and 2012, the product market share hovered around 80 percent of the bitters market. But this share was soon weakened as adulteration of the product and genuine competition entered to tap into what experts described as N32.2 billion annual bitters market.
Adjei regretted that the faking of the product because of its success and health benefits had brought the equity of the brand down. “If we don’t fight the fake, we are hurting the government because fakers don’t pay tax. We are harming the consumers because fakers don’t use good product. Some of these fake products have been tested in our laboratory and I tell you that the result is shocking and unhealthy to consumers,” he said.
