By IANS,
London : Over 90 percent of the merchandise sold on the official website of the 2012 London Olympics are made outside the country, a media report said Friday.
Of the 446 items meant for sale on the website, 67 percent is made in China and 18 percent in Turkey, while only eight percent bear the hallmark “Made in the UK”, Sky News reported.
China not only manufactures the largest number of products but the most popular ones – including the Olympic and Paralympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville.
Olympics organisers are expecting to raise one billion pounds from the souvenir sale.
Even if most of the souvenirs were being made abroad, a top official said the majority of licensees are British.
“There are one or two who source their manufacturing from overseas, but that’s really only in the case when there’s no manufacturing left for that kind of product in Britain,” said Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London Organising Committee.