São Paulo – Consumption of perfumes and skin care products in the Gulf amounted to 12 billion Saudi riyals (or US$ 3.2 billion) throughout the year and Saudi Arabia accounted for nearly half of the total, with 5.4 billion riyals in sales (US$ 1.44 billion). The region’s cosmetics market as a whole has a turnover of 45 billion riyals (US$ 12 billion), according to an article published this Friday (1st) by the newspaper Arab News, from Riyadh.
“The sale of cosmetics and perfumes during Ramadan alone exceeded SR 4.5 million (US$ 1.2 billion) in the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia],” said the CEO of Abdul Samad Al-Qurashi Group of Companies, Mohammed Abdul Samad Al-Qurashi, in reference to the month of the Muslim calendar which started at the end of June and ended at the end of July this year. “The reason behind that is the tradition where they have to welcome people in their homes with bukhoor and gift them oud for eid,” the businessman added.
“Bukhoor” and “oud” are quite popular products in the Gulf, and are used as incense and essence for perfumes. The “eid” is the holiday which marks the end of Ramadan.
The Arab News published the opinion of shop owners who claim that the Saudi market is active precisely for the tradition of giving perfumes as gifts on special occasions. One of these shop owners, Abu Mohammed, from Jeddah, claimed that half of his clients ask for the products to be gift wrapped.
Another merchant, Abu Salem, said that pilgrims who go to Mecca and expatriates who live in Saudi Arabia like to take local fragrances as presents when they go back home.
According to the newspaper, the businesswoman Sarah Al-Qahtani pointed out that the Gulf market is so large that international brands have started to use essences such as “oud” to lure more costumers from the region.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
