Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Frankincense merchants from Dhofar said they have been making less money each year at the Muscat festival, since the oil price crash of 2014.
Incense traders, mostly from Salalah, who have been setting up shop at the annual Muscat festival for several years, said that since 2014, their profits have seen a steady decline.
However, they said that despite the slow start this year, they expected business to pick up once salaries for potential customers arrive early next month.
These traders sell frankincense, and many products that are derived from it, including perfumes and lotions, besides scented Cambodian wood. Umm Ahmed from Salalah noted that she has been setting up shop at the Muscat Festival for 14 years, and she confirmed that her profits had steadily declined since 2014.
“I can’t say business is good. You can say its 50-50. Each year, profits dip. Last year was better. We have still got a lot of time at the festival. We’ll see where things go,” she remarked.
Hadiya Faraq, also from Salalah, said that she runs a frankincense shop at Hasan Souq in Muscat. She also agreed that profits at the festival had indeed been dipping since 2014. “I have been selling my wares at the festival for seven years, including four years in Qurm, where it was held earlier, and three years here at Amerat. “Things have been patchy, year after year in recent times. I make more on the weekends. We’re doing our job. I leave the rest to God. Business picks up during the weekend. So, God willing, business will get better,” Hadiya added.
Salalah native Umm Waheed, who has been coming to the festival for five years, had much the same to say. She pointed out that business has not been consistently good. “It is not stable. Sometimes you make only OMR2 a day. Sometimes you make OMR10 and other times OMR20.”
Maryam Khameez Shahari from Salalah insisted that it was still early and it would be hasty to judge profits now, but admitted that it had been a slow start.
“It’s still very early. Once salaries start coming in, we’ll see a spike in sales, God willing. But yes, I made more money in 2016, and less in 2017, and it has been that way for a few years now,” Maryam stressed. The one thing that nearly all incense merchants agreed on was that Salalah in Khareef season yielded more profits than the Muscat Festival, despite the economic downturn since 2014. They said this was due to an abundance of tourists, which Muscat was short on. “There is brisk business during the Khareef season in Salalah. There are many visitors. They are very knowledgeable and know exactly what they want to buy,” Hadiya Faraq confirmed.
Maryam Khameez Shahari, on the other hand, said that last Khareef had also been lacklustre for her business.
