On June 15, KOTRA held a 'Middle East large retailers Purchasing Policy and Consultation Event,' which was sponsored by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, in COEX, Seoul. Representatives from 11 large retailers out of 7 Middle East countries attended, 430 domestic export industry insiders were showing their interest in the Middle East market.
On 16th, an export consultation event will be held and 60 domestic companies are expected to participate in this event.
The Middle East retail market looks very promising. Because of the following reasons, first, the market has high purchasing power and increased income levels. Also high population growth and high proportion of middle aged people, since middle aged people tend to have a strong consumption propensity, helps to grow the Middle East retail market. Besides these, increases of tourism, steady development in new cities and continued expansion of retail outlets are also the reasons. Especially, the new towns with the development of new compositions of the traditional market rapidly replace modern retail outlets
In November 2008, the world largest shopping mall was built in Dubai, the size of 34 square meters. After that, other countries constructed modern shopping malls one after another, the entry of European retailers such as Carrefour, Geant (French retailers) and Metro (German retailer) occurred.
An official from KOTRA mentioned that, "The Middle East market has not received much spotlight as a consumer export market so far. However, we need to put some effort to make inroads into the market by large retailers in the future."
SOURCE: KOTRA