Sierra Leone’s Packaging Industry: Improvements for Export Competitiveness

The importance of the quality of goods to be consumed and of the packaging that protects them cannot be underestimated and is in fact paramount for their successful export to global and regional markets. Sierra Leone has long recognised that the poor packaging of its manufactured export goods is undermining the competitiveness of its products in global markets. Generally, across the main export sectors in retail and wholesale markets, agri-business and light manufactured goods, there has been an absence of a packaging aesthetic, as well as of the requisite standards to attract and retain the respect of discerning global consumers. This is not unusual for a Least Developed Country (LDC) such as Sierra Leone. In 2015 the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Trade Division defined a project in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Sierra Leone Import and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA) to increase the country’s export competitiveness through improved product packaging of agri-processed goods and light manufactured goods.