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Syria has been awash in imports since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, with the lifting of dollar restrictions and excessive tariffs that led to a boom in goods that disappeared from the shelves during the civil war.
In the weeks after that Assad has been overthrown 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 stocked with Turkish bottled water, broths made in Saudi Arabia, Lebanese milk powder and Western brands of chocolate such as Twix and Snickers. In one supermarket in the city center, an entire wall was dedicated to Pringles.
“Everything you see imported is new,” said one supermarket worker, adding that people were most excited by cheese cubes and drinks like Pepsi. “Everything we sold used to be made in Syria.”
In 2013, Assad criminalized foreign currencies in an effort to prop up the Syrian pound during the brutal conflict 13-year conflictwhile the regime also raised tariffs to raise revenue. For example, the iPhone has been subject to a nearly $900 tariff since last year.
This forced Syrians to rely on locally produced goods, with rampant smuggling from Lebanon of things that could not be obtained domestically, such as soy sauce. International sanctions worsened the isolation, although food and medicine were exempted.
In the past, foreign objects were hidden behind stalls and sold in secret to those who knew how to ask. The fear of raids, arrests and extortion by security personnel was such that Syrians often avoided mentioning the word “dollar” altogether – using code words such as “parsley” instead.
New HTSThe led government has since allowed dollar transactions and on Saturday announced a new set of uniform customs duties that it said cut fees by 50 to 60 percent. It added that lower duties on the import of raw materials would help protect local producers.
“Our main task in this period is to pump blood into the arteries of the economy, preserve institutions and serve the citizens,” Maher Khalil al-Hasan, the minister of internal trade, told the state-run Sana news agency this month.
Imported goods that for years flowed from Turkey to the HTS-led northwestern province of Idlib have begun to cross into the rest of the country, as have those from Lebanon, where cars mostly pass through the border without being checked.
Domestic brands remain significantly cheaper than foreign ones. A bottle of Dolly’s Syrian ketchup, for example, was sold for 14,000 Syrian pounds (about $1) in a supermarket, while Heinz was sold for 78,000.
But other staples became affordable again. Lebanon’s bananas, which went from being an everyday commodity to a luxury during the civil war, have arrived from the lush coast, slashing the price of a kilogram by about a fifth, vendors said.
Mahmoud, a 35-year-old vegetable and fruit seller, said all of his products, whether imported or not, had dropped in price last month. Foreign pineapple now costs a fifth of the current price, and domestic potatoes a quarter.
He attributed this to the end of widespread extortion under Assad, in which farmers on their way to wholesalers had to hand over chunks of their produce at military checkpoints, many of which are run by Bashar’s brother Maher’s infamously brutal Fourth Division. This forced them to charge higher prices to recoup their losses.
“What can a peasant say to them? He has to earn a living,” Mahmoud said, adding that he used to hand over bags of produce to officers and soldiers when they attacked him.
His stall in the central Shaalan market was empty on Saturday morning, however, as Syrians tighten their purse strings due to delayed salary payments.
“But I feel safe,” he said. “You’re no longer walking around with your eyes darting everywhere, worried they won’t follow you.”
The return of another nostalgic brand, The Laughing Cow French processed cheese blocks used by generations of Syrian children for sandwiches, has sparked angry jokes online.
“How long has it been since you saw this smile?” said one Syrian in an Instagram video of the brand’s famous cattle mascot. “The donkey went away and the cow came back.”
