- By Dhruti Shah
- Economic journalist
Vijaya Popat (center) opened her boutique in 2011
At family-owned food store Popat Mithai & Farsan, owner Vijaya Popat and her all-female team are often so busy dealing with customers in multiple languages that they barely have time to sit down, let alone talk. chat with a curious journalist.
Ms Popat set up her business in Leicester in 2011 to sell Indian sweets and savory products. The company has grown from two employees to 15 today. And an online operation was launched in 2018.
Serving the South Asian diaspora in the East Midlands city and beyond, sales soared during the coronavirus pandemic, as customers sought more comfort food – the likes that they or their loved ones like ancestors brought to the UK from countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. .
Ms Popat’s son Shyam has been put forward to speak to the BBC. “My mother is widely known in the community as the person who runs the business,” he says.
“And they all want to talk to her specifically to see if she can get any particular things.”
Popat Mithai & Farsan’s online operations allow it to serve clients across the UK
He adds that it is not just first generation immigrants, or those who have recently moved to the UK, who make up the main clientele. Instead, it’s also the second generation who may be buying food for their families, and increasingly online.
“During the lockdown, the website was a real lifeline, and now that we are out of lockdown, it has become a thriving branch of the business in itself,” says Shyam Popat. “Online sales now represent around a quarter to a third of the company’s total revenue.”
In addition to importing products from South Asia, the store also buys from Kenya.
The boost that global diasporas give to trade between countries is difficult to quantify, but governments are increasingly aware of the economic importance of migrant populations and their descendants.
Image source, Getty Images
Pizza is a dish that became popular around the world thanks to Italian migration
This figure is equivalent to 3.6% of the world’s population, or one in 30 people. And this does not include the children of these people born in their new country, nor the descendants of former migrants.
International trade
And often these businesses are involved in importing food, clothing or other goods from a migrant’s former country, like India-born Vijaya Popat and her thriving store in Leicester. The store, and others like it, played a role in Indian exports to the United Kingdom. totaling $10.4 billion last year.
Based in Paris, Olivier Habiyambere helps boost Kenyan exports to Europe. He is the founder of the Kenyan Diaspora Market website, which wholesales food and clothing from the African country and then sells them to customers across the European continent.
Image source, Olivier Habiyambere
Olivier Habiyambere says sales at Kenyan Diaspora Market increased through word of mouth
Mr. Habiyambere, who grew up in Kenya, got the idea for the business when he moved to Paris to study and met other people from Kenya and East Africa.
“Everyone wanted Kenyan products, but the problem was getting Kenyan products here,” he says. “People could pick up the produce when they went to Kenya, but it’s not like they could do it every year.”
So he launched the company in April 2022 to provide Kenyans in Europe with an easier way to purchase products from home. Mr Habiyambere adds that business has been growing steadily, helped by Kenyan communities spreading the word through WhatsApp groups.
Image source, Kenyan Diaspora Market
The Kenyan Diaspora Market sells hundreds of products, like these, to Kenyans and other East Africans across Europe.
As the Kenyan diaspora market focuses on Kenyan migrants, Glasgow-based website Agora Greek Delicacies now has more non-Greek customers than those from the UK’s Greek communities.
It was started ten years ago by husband and wife Christina Lyropoulou and Michael Sofianos, who studied at university in the UK. They now employ 14 people and supply imported Greek food and drinks to restaurants, cafes, individuals and other businesses.
“We started to expand to the British public, that is to say those who travel to Greece or who have Greek friends,” explains Ms Lyropoulou. “And our online store saw sales increase by around 1,000% in the first few months of lockdown.”
Professor Pragya Agarwal, a behavioral and data scientist at Loughborough University, regularly buys products from her native India for herself and her family in the UK.
Image source, Christine Lyropoulou
Christina Lyropoulou experienced a business boom during the coronavirus pandemic
“For me personally, it’s about maintaining the connection to the homeland, homeland – whatever you call it,” she says.
She laughs as she describes her love for Indian mangoes and admits that she regularly ordered from a particular online store in a bid to get her mango fix, especially during the pandemic.
“This is what I ate every summer in India, every summer, every day after every meal.”
Maria Elo is an associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark and has published numerous books and articles on diaspora and trade.
She says it’s important to be aware of the framing that occurs whenever we talk about the diaspora, with migrants often being described in one of two ways.
Some believe that migration and diaspora are problematic. Professor Elo describes this as a “deficit vision” with negative connotations. But she adds that there is also a positive narrative, which involves “great promise for business and the economy”.
She adds that research shows that diaspora entrepreneurs are agile and encourage cross-products. “We all eat pizza today, even though we’re not all Italian and it’s something that’s been around for a long time.”
