The Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) and the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Dubai (PTIC-Dubai) organized a webinar last 24 August to help exporters of beauty and personal care products enter the United Arab Emirates market.
“Today’s agenda reflects our willingness to engage the Middle East from every angle and to take head-on some of the more complicated market structures, import policies, and regulations presented before us,” said DTI Undersecretary for Trade Promotions Abdulgani Macatoman.
Resource speakers include Prism International’s Business Development Manager Mohammed Al Zhoubi and Dubai Municipality’s Acting Manager at Registration and Permits Health and Safety Department Hessa Jaffar Hassan Al Jawi. Prism International is a distributor of pharmaceutical and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) products in the UAE and the Dubai Municipality is one of the regulatory bodies for beauty and personal care products.
Al Zhoubi shared that the Gulf Cooperation Countries, where UAE is included, is a relatively young market. The GCC has a population of 54 million people, 75% of which are less than 40 years old. Meanwhile, the UAE is a diverse country with its 9.6 million population composed of 200 nationalities.
Distributors, Al Zhoubi said, are looking for the following metrics in measuring the viability of the exporter: e-commerce sales in the UAE, previous and current export performance in the UAE, as well as sales in the Philippines.
Before exporters can enter the UAE market, they must be certified by the Dubai Municipality, the certifying body for perfumes, cosmetics, health supplements, detergents, biocides, food contact materials, toys, and electric machines.
Al Jawi briefed the participants about Montaji, a consumer product registration initiative by Dubai Municipality which registers and assesses consumer products before they are traded in the local markets. A product registration certificate from Montaji is valid for 5 years and costs 200 AED or around PHP2,650.
The approval process for Montaji takes 22 working days for cosmetics, personal care, and perfumes; 12 working days for health supplements; and 5 working days for biocides and detergents. The DTI-EMB offered to assist exporters in fulfilling the specific requirements for their respective products.
Philippine Consul General in Dubai Paul Raymund Cortes said that the pandemic is “a challenge for everybody to keep their economic opportunities alive, not only for themselves but for their fellow Filipinos.” He also challenged the attendees of the webinar to not just become a distributor, but also venture into manufacturing their products.
The webinar, Beauty and Personal Care in the UAE, is part of a series. The next webinar on Beauty and Personal Care in the State of Qatar will be on 14 September. The series will conclude with a business matching session with buyers from the Middle East and Africa scheduled on 16 September. ♦
Date of Release: 2 September 2020