Shops, food and markets
Hayat Market: supermarket chain in Mogadishu
Hayat Market is a supermarket chain in Mogadishu, owned by Safa International, a trading group based in the UAE and founded in 1989. Its first branch opened in April 2020 and its fifth, in the Ali Kamin area, in early 2025. Its shops sell mainly imported goods, with food on the ground floor and electronics, clothing and household goods on the floors above. It also runs an online shop, adeeg.com.
The short version
Hayat Market is a chain of large supermarkets in Mogadishu. It was set up by Safa International, a trading company based in the United Arab Emirates, which was founded in 1989 and works in ten countries, mostly in East Africa and the Middle East (Food Business Middle East and Africa, 5 March 2025). The first branch opened in April 2020 (same source).
Branches
By 2025 Hayat had branches in several districts of Mogadishu, including KM4 (Taleex) and KM5 (Zoobe) (Wikipedia, Hayat Market). Its fifth branch, in the Ali Kamin neighbourhood, opened in early 2025 (African Marketing Confederation, 28 February 2025). A 2021 article in SIMAD University's Somali Business Review named Hayat and Midnimo, both at the Zoobe junction, as the most popular supermarkets in the city (Somali Business Review, 23 November 2021).
What it sells
The emerging-markets consultancy Trendtype, quoted by the African Marketing Confederation, described Hayat's shops as small malls on several floors: food on the ground floor, and electronics, clothing, toys, furniture and household goods above (African Marketing Confederation, 28 February 2025). The chain stocks mainly imported products. Safa International says it handles more than 35 brands and more than 300 product lines, mostly brought in through the UAE. Hayat also runs an online shop, adeeg.com (Food Business Middle East and Africa, 5 March 2025).
Setting and awards
The Somali Business Review article says supermarkets in Mogadishu opened mainly in the ten years to 2021, many serving families who had returned from abroad and were used to shopping that way, and that high electricity prices make it costly to keep food cold (Somali Business Review, 2021). Hayat was named Best Supermarket Chain of the Year at the East Africa Somali Awards in 2024 and Best Supermarket of the Year at the Somali Business Awards in 2025 (Wikipedia, Hayat Market).
Related
Sources
- Food Business Middle East and Africa, 5 March 2025 · foodbusinessmea.com
- Wikipedia, Hayat Market · en.wikipedia.org
- African Marketing Confederation, 28 February 2025 · africanmarketingconfederation.org
- Somali Business Review, 23 November 2021 · sbr.simad.edu.so
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