With the flavor of Pepsi and Pringles, the western market devours the new Syria

With the end of Assad-era restrictions, foreign products flood Syria, symbolizing the entry of capitalism into a country under reconstruction

Syria was flooded with imports after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, with the end of dollar restrictions and exorbitant tariffs leading to a boom in products that had disappeared from 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, goods imported from the West and the region have flooded stores.

On the outskirts of the capital Damascus, shops are now filled with Turkish mineral water, Saudi stock cubes, Lebanese milk powder and Western chocolate brands like Twix and Snickers. In a city center supermarket, an entire wall was dedicated to Pringles.

“Everything you see imported is new,” said a supermarket worker, adding that people were more excited about cheese cubes and drinks like Pepsi. “Everything we sold before was Syrian-made.”

In 2013, Assad criminalized foreign currencies in an attempt to strengthen the Syrian pound during the brutal 13-year conflict, while the regime also raised customs duties to bolster revenue. iPhones, for example, were subject to a fee of nearly $900 until last year.

This forced Syrians to rely on local products, with rampant smuggling from Lebanon of items that could not be manufactured domestically, such as soy sauce. International sanctions worsened the isolation, although food and medicine were exempt.

Foreign items were often hidden behind the counter and secretly sold to those who knew how to ask. The fear of invasions, arrests and extortion by security agents was so great that Syrians avoided even mentioning the word “dollar”, using codes such as “parsley” in its place.

The new HTS-led government has since allowed transactions in dollars and on Saturday announced a new unified schedule of customs fees, reducing them by between 50% and 60%. He also stated that lower taxes on imports of raw materials would help protect local producers.

“Our main task in this period is to breathe life into the arteries of the economy, preserve institutions and serve citizens,” Maher Khalil al-Hasan, minister of domestic trade, told state news agency Sana this month.

Imported goods that for years flowed from Turkey to the northwestern HTS-controlled province of Idlib have begun to circulate through the rest of the country, as have products from Lebanon, where cars pass through the border without major checks.

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

But other basic products have become affordable again. Lebanese bananas, which went from everyday item to luxury during the civil war, have arrived from the lush coast, reducing the price per kilo by about a fifth, sellers said.

Mahmoud, a 35-year-old fruit and vegetable seller, said that all of his products have seen a drop in price over the last month, whether imported or not. Foreign pineapples now cost a fifth of the previous price, and local potatoes a quarter.

He attributed this to the end of widespread extortion under Assad, in which farmers on their way to wholesalers were forced to hand over some of their produce at military checkpoints, many of them manned by the infamous Fourth Division, commanded by Bashar’s brother Maher. This forced them to charge higher prices to compensate for losses.

“What can a farmer tell them? He needs to earn a living,” Mahmoud said, adding that he was forced to hand over bags of goods to officers and soldiers during raids.

Its outlet in Shaalan central market was empty on Saturday morning, however, as Syrians tighten their belts due to delayed salary payments.

“But I feel safe,” he said. “You no longer walk around with your eyes on everything, worried that they’re going to come after you.”

The return of another nostalgic brand, the French’s processed cheese cubes The Laughing Cowused by generations of Syrian children in sandwiches, has sparked tongue-in-cheek jokes online.

“How long has it been since you seen that smile?” joked a Syrian in an Instagram video about the brand’s famous bovine mascot. “The donkey is gone and the cow is back.”

With information from the Financial Times*