Chinese cell phones make their way into Egyptian market

CAIRO -- "It is cheap, economic, well-shaped and reasonable," 42-year-old Omar, who just bought a Chinese-made cell phone from a stand in downtown Cairo, looked satisfied.

The Egyptian customer was looking for a "cheap" cell phone that "works well." Voila! "I find that in the Chinese products," he said.

Zaki, 38 years old, has been selling cell phone accessories in Abdel-Aziz Street in the Egyptian capital for over 15 years. "Over the past three years, Chinese-made phones and accessories have swept the market," he noted.

Egyptian customers find the Chinese-made copies "interesting," because they have similar shapes and options as other modern models, but sold at about 70-percent lower prices, Zaki told Xinhua.

Mohamed Tawfik, sales manager of Radio Mohamed Talaat store, said that his store sells only trademark products, including Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericson and LG, most of which are made in China, noting that many street stands sell Chinese-made fake ones without warrant.

"Some Chinese brands such as Huawei and G-Tide have certified agents in Egypt, and they sell products of good quality," the manager explained. "But other unbranded Chinese-made products are fake copies."

Apart from cell phones and accessories, Chinese-made electric sets also made their way into Egyptian stores with competitive prices. Some store managers, however, saw a flaw in Egypt's import patterns.

Atef al-Otaifi, manager of Otaifi Electric store at Abdel-Aziz Street, complained that "Chinese products are good, but our greedy importers only bring the cheapest, worst-quality products to Egypt. "

Some distributors even traveled to Dubai on regular basis to smuggle Chinese-made cell phones to Egypt, just to avoid taxes and customs.

A mobile phone trader at Abdel-Aziz Street, who only revealed his name as "Alaa," told Xinhua that Egyptian police recently seized 6,500 smuggled cell phones from a fellow trader of his.

Interestingly, some Chinese brands, popular at home, were not well received by Egyptian customers. Citing the example of Haier, Otaifi noted that after it began to be assembled in Egypt, the products became more saleable and popular.