Olympics boom for Oman

By staff - Tue Aug 14, 5:11 am

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Muscat: Don’t get surprised by the title. Even though Oman didn’t win any medals from the London Olympics but Omani Exporters had a boom by supplying vegetables and electrical products manufactured in Oman to meet the demand generated by the Games.

Export of dates, fish, vegetables, turbo jet parts, film and sheet, electric cables, ceramic tiles, fibre optic wires from Oman had pole-vaulted “because of the recently-concluded Olympics Games-.

Oman Air, which ferried these items to London from Muscat, says the carrier logged a 14 per cent rise in cargo shipments. “The jump was because of the increased demand for the Games,- Mohamed Sherief Padiyath, general manager (cargo) for Oman Air, informed Times of Oman.

The demand for fresh and dry fish had gone up considerably. The exporters who used to send two tonnes of fish every week in July 2011, sent around five tonnes a week this July.

“Besides fish, there was high demand for dates and dry fruits because the Games were hosted during Ramadan time,- a senior official of The Public Authority for Investment Promotion & Export Development (PAIPED) said.

The perishables had been supplied to malls, retail stores and restaurants in London and also the Games Village, where athletes and officials from Gulf countries stayed.

One exporter said he had earned almost RO50,000 from exports to London in the first week of July. “I had sent more than 30 consignments of electrical goods and vegetables to the UK, each weighing up to one-and-a-half tonnes,- he claimed.

The vegetables were procured from the Batinah and Dhofar regions. The farmers brought their produce to warehouses where the exporters sorted them for “quality control-. The fresh ones were packed into boxes, loaded on pick-up trucks and rushed to the airport’s cargo terminal from where they were flown to London.

These consignments are usually sent by sea.The demand for electrical goods had also gone up abnormally because of London 2012.

“Several consignments of electrical goods were flown out this year before the Olympics started as the importers in London wanted them immediately,- said another exporter. It takes a little more than month for a consignment to reach London from Muscat by sea.

Then there was demand for film and sheet, non-cellular products, polyethylene terephthalates, light petroleum distillates, parts for turbo-jets or turbo-propellers, electric conductors, measuring or checking instruments, appliances and machines, instruments used for aeronautical and space navigation.

Perfumes too have found good favour. “We sent a huge amount of perfumes and toilet accessories to the UK during this period,- another exporter said. And you thought we were hardly in the Game(s)! We were very much there.

Source: with inputs from Times of Oman