Syria flooded Pepsi and Pringles as rulers opened up the economy

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Syria has been flooded with imports in the wake of Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, with the end of dollar restrictions and steep tariffs that led to a boom in goods that disappeared from the shelves during the civil war. .

In the weeks since Assad was ousted in an offensive led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, imported western and regional goods poured into stores.

Around the capital Damascus, shops are now lined with Turkish bottled water, Saudi-produced bouillon cubes, Lebanese powdered milk and western chocolate brands such as Twix and Snickers. In one supermarket in the city center, an entire wall is dedicated to Pringles.

“Everything imported you see is new,” a worker at a supermarket said, adding that people are most excited about cheese cubes and drinks like Pepsi. “Everything we used to sell was made in Syria.”

Assad, in 2013, criminalized foreign currencies in an effort to strengthen the Syrian pound during the brutal period. 13 years of conflictwhile the regime also raised customs to increase revenue. iPhones, for example, were subject to a duty of nearly $900 last year.

This forces Syrians to rely on local products, with widespread smuggling from Lebanon of items that cannot be obtained locally, such as soy sauce. International sanctions have exacerbated isolation, although food and medicine are exempt.

Foreign goods used to be kept behind counters and sold secretly to those who knew enough to ask. The fear of attacks, arrests and extortion by security personnel is so high that Syrians often avoid mentioning the word “dollar” altogether – using code words like “parsley” instead .

The new HTS-led by the government since allowed transactions in dollars, and on Saturday announced a new set of unified custom fees that it said will reduce fees by 50 to 60 percent. It added that lower import duties on raw materials would help protect local producers.

“Our main task at this time is to pump blood into the veins of the economy, preserve institutions and serve the citizens,” Maher Khalil al-Hasan, the minister of internal trade, told the agency news in the state of Sana this month.

Imported goods that for years flowed from Turkey to the HTS-led northwestern province of Idlib have begun to pass through other parts of the country, as well as those from Lebanon, where cars drive across the border mostly unchecked.

Local brands remain cheaper than foreign ones. A bottle of Syrian ketchup Dolly’s, for example, sells for 14,000 Syrian pounds (about $1) in a supermarket, while Heinz is sold for 78,000.

But other staples have become cheap again. Lebanese bananas, which went from an everyday item to a luxury during the civil war, have arrived from the lush coast, reducing the price of a kilo by almost a fifth, vendors said. .

Mahmoud, a 35-year-old vegetable and fruit seller, said that all his produce dropped in price last month, imported or not. Foreign pineapples now cost a fifth of their former price, and local potatoes a fourth.

He attributed this to the end of widespread extortion under Assad, where farmers heading to wholesalers had to hand over fractions of their produce at military checkpoints, many of which were manned by his brother’s brutal Fourth Division. Bashar Maher. This forces them to charge higher prices to make up for the losses.

“What can the farmer say to them? He has to earn a living,” Mahmoud said, adding that he had to hand over bags of produce to officers and soldiers when they raided him.

His stand in the central Shaalan market was empty on Saturday morning, however, as Syrians tightened their purse strings over delayed salary payments.

“But I feel safe,” he said. “You no longer walk around with your eyes looking everywhere, worried that they will follow you.”

The return of another nostalgic brand, France’s The Laughing Cow processed cheese cubes used for sandwiches by generations of Syrian children, has prompted jokes online.

“How long have you seen this smile?” said a Syrian in an Instagram video of the brand’s famous bovine mascot. “The donkey left and the ox came back.”