NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 5 – It’s no doubt that Africans like to dress well and while the fashion industry is usually focusing on clothing and other accessories, fragrances tend to have little air time.
The perfume and fragrance industry is worth over USD50 billion globally and is mainly dominated by Western fragrance global titans.
In Africa, research shows that the beauty market is worth USD 4.5 billion in South Africa, followed by Nigeria USD 500 million, and Kenya USD 300 million.
Many perfume houses own the facilities to extract and distill the essential oils and aromatic compounds that comprise your favorite fragrance’s unmistakeable ‘accord’ of base, middle and top notes. These ingredients are often imported from small suppliers in Africa, processed, and then re-exported into the commercial market of their country of origin as the finished product.
This means that the African continent presents a huge opportunity for the growth of local brands based on the fact that 99 per cent of the ingredients required to manufacture the perfumes are in the continent.
Mohammed Abdiqani Sidow a Somali-born living in Istanbul, Turkey spoke to Capital Business on his mission to scale up the African perfume industry.
He is the founder of Fragrance House Limited- a company that manufactures PIF Fragrance perfume brands.
How can you describe the perfume industry in Africa?
The perfume market in Africa is huge with potential not fully exploited. Most of the sales are imported western perfumes that are beyond the reach of the majority due to high prices
What motivated you to venture into the perfume industry?
I have always been a fan of the sweet smell of fragrances since a tender age and seeing the niche in the perfume industry in Africa due to the high prices of imported western perfumes, I decided to venture into the fragrance world to create different authentic scents that are affordable to the common man.
How exactly does the perfume industry work?
Perfume comes from the Latin “per” meaning “through” and “fumum,” or “smoke.” Many ancient perfumes were made by extracting natural oils from plants through pressing and steaming. The oil was then burned to scent the air. Today, most perfume is used to scent bar soap. Some products are even perfumed with industrial odorants to mask unpleasant smells or to appear “unscented.” While fragrant liquids used for the body are often considered perfume, true perfumes are defined as extracts or essences and contain a percentage of oil distilled in alcohol. Water is also used.
In terms of production, where exactly do you source the raw materials?
At the moment my main markets for raw materials are in the UAE, Turkey, and Paris, France because of the well-established perfume industries in these countries.
What are some of your brands and which are the highest selling in the market?
Currently, as an entrepreneur, my key brands are Obacco, Honour, Gold and Interlude.
The perfume industry presents a huge opportunity. What should be done to tap into the sector for job creation for the youth?
The biggest challenge facing the continent is the high cost of production and if African governments can lower the cost of doing business and also offer tax incentives then this is an industry that can employ millions of Africans.
We must also factor in the idea of African brands and this will help the continent’s brands have global recognition and that will spur the growth of the industry.
