Cheap, fake perfume creates stink in market

JEDDAH: Eid is the best time of the year for perfume traders. But a considerable quantity of counterfeit and substandard perfume is creating a stink in the Saudi market recently.
According to a report in Al-Sharq Arabic daily, fake perfumes that look identical to the genuine items are sold for low prices, sometimes as low as 50 percent of the real price.
These low prices are attractive to the customers who would normally pay SR 400 to 500 for a small bottle of the original version. Here they can buy an imitation that looks genuine for as little as SR 35 to SR 50 a bottle.
Saudi Arabia has a large market for perfume with annual sales estimated around SR 4.3 billion. Sales reach their peak during the Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha holidays.
“Fake perfumes are similar to the original in smell as well as the shape of their bottles and packaging,” the daily quoted merchants as saying.
According to perfume merchant, Osama Ali, about 30 percent of perfumes sold in the Kingdom are counterfeit. Customers can usually distinguish fakes by their smell but most middle-class customers buy them for their low price.
Abu Elaf, a street vendor who sells low-cost perfumes, says there is a good market for these low priced items. “We do a good business and recently have seen a considerable increase in sales. This may be due to the increase in living costs and the fact that middle class families are curbing their spending on luxury items,” he said.
“Huge profits can be made duplicating high-end perfumes, but it needs a large capital investment. A large percentage of my profit comes from the perfume industry outside the Kingdom and the remaining from various shops in Riyadh,” he said.
Khaled Al-Osaimi, a merchant of genuine perfume said, “Our business in Riyadh deals only in genuine perfumes. After purchasing high quality perfume in bulk from Paris, we resize the product into smaller units and price them from SR 150 to 250 to make them affordable for our customers.”
He added the main problem he faces is customers cannot always recognize the difference between an original and counterfeit perfume. “They compare only prices. We prevent this by putting our information on the packaging to distinguish between them.”
Dermatologist Abdullah Al-Samari says the continuous use of counterfeit perfumes could cause skin problems. However, he rejected suggestions that it could lead to cancer.
“Even the use of original perfume may cause skin allergies for some. But it is very rare compared to those who use counterfeits,” he said.