JEDDAH: Although prices are through the roof these days, pilgrims have been flocking to gold stores in Jeddah to buy gifts for relatives back home.
The Haj may prove to be a boon to gold vendors who have been experiencing more customers coming to sell their gold rather than to buy it. The resulting glut has caused layoffs in the local gold market.
But the Haj economy has changed the landscape, at least for the time being. “Most pilgrims don’t care about the rise in gold prices because the most important thing for them is to bring gifts back home,” said Abu Talal, a sales clerk at Al-Sailan for Gold and Jewelry in downtown Jeddah.
“Some are (buying gold) for business purposes to resell it back at home because the Saudi gold has a very good reputation.”
A tour of the downtown gold market found vendors too busy to speak to reporters. One store that had let go of some employees this summer had recently hired five temporary workers to deal with Haj seasonal peak in gold buying.
Abu Talal said the nationalities of customers buying gold Nigerien, Senegalese and Mauritanian. He added that some pilgrims like those from Malaysian are fewer in number this time and only search for light gold.
Abu Talal added that 21 carat of gold is most popular. Second comes 18 carat and lastly 24 carat. “This is a good season just as we expected,” said gold shop owner Abdul Salah. “We hope that the profit we make from this season will cover the shortage we faced a few months ago.”
A Senegalese woman buying gold said that she intends to spend between SR155 and SR165 and that she does not mind about the high cost of gold these days because she’s buying it for herself.
According to media reporters The Kingdom has 37 percent of the gold market in the Middle East.
