Over six in ten London Olympics souvenirs being made in China

LONDON - Over 90 percent of the merchandise being sold on the official website for the London Olympics is being made outside Britain.

Of the 446 items for sale on the site, 67 percent are made in China and 18 percent in Turkey, while only eight percent bear the hallmark “Made in the UK”, Sky News reports.

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 a billion pounds from the sale of 2012 merchandise.

They are keen to stress that, while most of the souvenirs are made abroad, the majority of licensees are British.

“If you go through each of the licensees they’re virtually all UK companies,” Sky News quoted Paul Deighton, chief executive of the London Organising Committee, as saying.

One Birmingham-based company, however, feels its specialist product could have been made at home.

Vaughtons made the Olympic and Paralympic medals for the 1908 London Games.

They were hoping to be considered for the lucrative contract of producing lapel pin badges for the Games, which are traditionally among the best sellers of any Olympics.

That contract went instead to Chinese company Honav, who manufactured the badges for the Beijing Games.

“We feel betrayed, there’s no doubt about that, we feel disgusted, betrayed,” said managing director Steve Hobbis. (ANI)