Souks of Oman

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 21st April 2014, 09:03 AM

Hello all ~ Salaams ~ Something odd has occured in the resupply procurement route of Swords and stuff into the region; The goods from Yemen and thus Ethiopia/Africa have all but stopped dead! The past month or two has seen the tap being turned off... Borders are strictly closed in terms of material moving from Yemen through the Omani souk system... The market being self correcting has turned to Persian and Indian/Pakistani goods to fill the void. It has been interesting to see how long stocks lasted from holdings of Yemeni items in Muscat souk shops... It seems like in no time at all massive stock piles of goods have literally vanished... hardly surprising when you consider the through traffic of people wandering the Muttrah souk system... litterally thousands daily...One cruise ship contains 4,000 holiday makers... and they park them 500 yards from the main souk entrance...Trade...It gets brisk !!

Buyers beware the new stuff is laden with the usual problems...but it is fascinating to see how fast the markets adapt. Thats life !!

As a strange caveat to this post.. dealers of the real Omani gear are reporting that getting the original antiques is much harder but that some souk shop owners have even released their personal stocks of long held antiquity into the system... It is an interesting time to collect...but very costly... very !

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

21st April 2014, 09:03 AM	#14
Ibrahiim al Balooshi Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE Posts: 4,408	Supply Changes. Hello all ~ Salaams ~ Something odd has occured in the resupply procurement route of Swords and stuff into the region; The goods from Yemen and thus Ethiopia/Africa have all but stopped dead! The past month or two has seen the tap being turned off... Borders are strictly closed in terms of material moving from Yemen through the Omani souk system... The market being self correcting has turned to Persian and Indian/Pakistani goods to fill the void. It has been interesting to see how long stocks lasted from holdings of Yemeni items in Muscat souk shops... It seems like in no time at all massive stock piles of goods have literally vanished... hardly surprising when you consider the through traffic of people wandering the Muttrah souk system... litterally thousands daily...One cruise ship contains 4,000 holiday makers... and they park them 500 yards from the main souk entrance...Trade...It gets brisk !! Buyers beware the new stuff is laden with the usual problems...but it is fascinating to see how fast the markets adapt. Thats life !! As a strange caveat to this post.. dealers of the real Omani gear are reporting that getting the original antiques is much harder but that some souk shop owners have even released their personal stocks of long held antiquity into the system... It is an interesting time to collect...but very costly... very ! Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi.