By Menna Ali At a large shopping mall in eastern Cairo, a young Syrian salesman holds some scented paper samplers and pliespassers-by with them, urging them to test his perfumes. "Would you like to try one?" Mohamed Nasouh, an elegant 26-year-old asks, and a great many people, both female and male, stop to sniff at a sampler or two. Many go into buy his perfumes. "Customers come here because they like the delicate scents of the shop's high-quality perfumes," Nasouh told The Egyptian Gazette. In recent years, Syrian shops selling both original perfumes and excellent copies of other well known brands have noticeably increased across the country. In downtown Cairo, passers-by can be stopped by Syrians more than once with a request to take paper samplers on which various types of fragrance have been sprayed. After the war broke out in Syria in 2011, Syrian refugees have managed to integrate into the societies they fled to by establishing their own businesses and contributing to the economies of their host countries. In Egypt, Syrians started businesses in the food, sweet and perfume industries. They have made huge successes in these spheres. According to a 2017 report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) entitled, "Jobs Make the Difference", Syrian businesses have invigorated "the Egyptian private sector through the injection of financing, including some $800 million in new investment, new technical expertise and robust business experience". Syrian businessman and Chairman of the Syrian Businessmen's Bloc in Egypt, Khaldoun al-Mowakaa, told local media that there were about 30,000 Syrian businessmen in Egypt and their number was high here because Syrians were confident in the Egyptian economy and the country's investment climate. According to officials, there are about 500,000 Syrian refugees in Egypt, approximately 120,000 of whom are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "Syrians are really good at what they do," Nermeen Yasser, a 24-year-old young woman, told The Gazette. At the time, she was buying a perfume in a Syrian shop. "This is the third time I come here to buy perfumes," she said. It was the high quality of the perfumes and their affordable prices that had brought her to the shop for the third time. Islam Adel, a salesman working for a famous Syrian perfume manufacturer called "Maa Althahab (water gold) Fragrances", said that the perfumes they make are original and their essence is imported from France. "That is why our fragrances are of a high quality," he told The Gazette. The prices, he said,were "very affordable." They ranged between LE150 ($8.5) and LE750 ($42.3) according to the amount the customer wanted. Maa Althahab is a renowned Syrian perfume manufacturer that set up in Egypt in 2010. Now, the company has over 80 branches throughout the country, according to Adel. It already has branches in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and is planning to open a branch in London soon. "Syria is famous for its beautiful flowers. Damascus is called the city of Jasmine. Fragrances are special for the Syrian people. That is why Syrians excel in this field. And it seems that Egyptians love flowers and exquisite scents for they have welcomed us warmly," Basel Mohamed, a Syrian salesman working for a shop in central Cairo, said as he proffered perfume paper samplers towards potential customers. Perfume paper samplers were not well known in Egypt until Syrians used them to market their perfumes. "Egyptians were not familiar with this custom of ours. But now it has become very effective in drawing in customers to our fragrances," Mohamed said."It seems that Egyptians share our love of elegant scents." .
