Everyday Turkish products enter Libyans’ houses helping to give them the idea to live a normal life, forgetting about war and turmoil. However, Libyans are beginning questioning quality and the reliability of Turkish goods asking “are Turkish goods dangerous for Libyans?”. Fatima, from Tripoli, says: “we use plenty of Turkish products and at the beginning we thought they were great..now we fear they are making more harm than good”
Low price…what about quality?
Turkish products are abundantly present in supermarkets in Misrata, Tripoli and Benghazi. Their low prices and their nice packaging have satisfied Libyans needs, providing them with affordable coffee, frozen meat, can-food and cleaning products.
However something worth of being noted is arising. In fact, lately, several Libyans have begun complaining about the bad quality of the Turkish food and even about the negative effects of cleaning products.
Fayez, who loves cappuccino, used to drink it every day, and suddenly decided to buy a Turkish brand. Turkish cappuccino was even sweater (and cheaper) of the one he used to drink but after three months he reported “stomachache, acidity and hiccup”. After some consultations and several Libyan dinars spent, Fayez was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome. The doctor suggested to switch to his previous favorite brand and the symptoms went away. Fayez said :” the Turkish cappuccino tasted good but I stopped drinking it. I will spend a little bit more but I will preserve my health”. Some issue seems to arise also about frozen food. Hussein is a meat eater and loves frozen kibbeh imported from Turkey. Last month, his family (wife and 4 kids) ate their favorite kibbeh for dinner and they were very happy with that. Unfortunately the whole family spent the same night vomiting and with high fever. One of the little girl said to his mother : “I did love kibbeh..now I am afraid of eating it”. Hissein’s wife said: “we like to eat Turkish meat, but since now on we will buy meat from our favorite butcher”.
Turkish goods confiscated in Beyda
Turkish goods: dangerous cleaning?
Turkey exports in Libya food but also other products, such as cleaning materials and medical equipment. Aisha works for a small cleaning company in Misrata. She is very effective at her job and she spends between 6-7 hours everyday cleaning kitchens and bathrooms. “After using a Turkish “spray mousse grime and lime cleaner” I began to suffer of recurrent headaches and nose bleeding” she says. Aisha did not go to see a doctor because she feared to loose her job so she just stopped using the cleaning products. The symptoms disappeared after few days.
She said:” probably I’ll use them at home, although some says Turkish goods are dangerous, because they are really cheap and I cannot afford other products. However the rooms must be empty when I clean them and when I will earn more I will switch to different brands”.
So far any negative reports about medical equipment arose. Considering the sensitivity of this matter everyone it will remain like that. However, it cannot be taken for granted.
