Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 21 /Trend N. Umid, S. Isayev
About 90 percent of beauty products which are being sold in Iran markets are cheap replicas of originals, secretary of Khorasan Razavi Province's Commission Against Smuggling, Parviz Forouzanfar said, Iranian Jahanesanat newspaper reported.
Forouzanfar went on to note that, all famous European brands replicated in countries such as China and India, Pakistan and UAE, and then imported to Iran.
About 85 percent of the beauty products which being sold in the country are smuggled into Iran, he added. He said that 3 percent of the market share is manufactured by local companies. The rest is legally imported.
Forouzanfar also underlined that, Iranian people annually pay $1.5 billion for beauty products, while only $150 million worth of these products imported legally.
Early in July, Iranian media outlets quoted deputy Industry, Mine, and Trade Minister Mohammad Sadeq Mofateh as saying about $14 billion worth of goods are smuggled into Iran, each year.
About 80-90 percent of health and beauty products being sold in the country are brought in illegally, he added.
He went on to note that Iran is also one the world's biggest markets for cigarettes smugglers.
It is while due to sanctions, Iran's legal imports faced a 25.4 percent decrease during the first half of the current solar year (started on March 21) compared to the same period of the last year.
