DOHA - Several retailers here say that they were not able to meet the festival demand for children's toys due to the restrictions imposed by the government recently on the import and sale of toys.
Following reports about tainted Chinese days flooding the international market, the Qatari authorities had imposed strict regulations to ensure the quality of toys being sold in the country.
Enquiries with toy shops yesterday revealed that many popular varieties are short in supply and most retailers have been relying on old stocks.
Sales manager of a leading toys shop in the city told The Peninsula that their business had been hit hard by the new regulations.
"We are selling mostly toys from Italy, Spain and the US and we have enough stocks in our store. But we are not able sell them due to some new restrictions imposed by the government," he lamented.
He said, every importer has to produce a quality certificate to the authorities concerned to get permission for sale of the imported toys. This certificate is to be issued by a UK-based agency.
"The authorities here will accept only the originals of the certificate. For an original certificate, the manufacturers are charging us $35 for each item (each type of toys) in the consignment. Calculated together, this will become a huge amount, not to speak about the delay in procuring the certificate. In the absence of this certificate we are not able to sell the new stocks we have imported in the past two months," he said.
"Our customers are mostly nationals and Europeans and there is a good demand for the toys during the holidays. But we are not able to provide many popular items. The authorities have been saying that they are planning to conduct the quality tests in Qatar but we don't know when this will materialise," he added.
An official from a leading hypermarket, which has an exclusive toys section, said they had also been facing problems in getting new stocks.
" We are getting toys from Dubai as well as from local importers. However, new stocks are rarely coming these days and we are mostly relying on old stocks," he said.
Traders say that demand for toys normally go up during the festival seasons, from nationals as well as residents.
© The Peninsula 2007
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