Pricing structure

The combined average manufacturing cost of uncut lenses and frames for prescription glasses is 1 to 1.20 dollars. 84 The manufacturing cost for reading glasses is typically 0.4 to 0.5 dollars. Final landed cost includes international and domestic freight, customs, and import duties and averages between 30 and 50 dollars but can reach 300 dollars and above. There may be additional margins if sold through a distributor in-country which are typically higher in retail sales as compared to government tenders. In high-income countries (HICs) such as Canada, the average prescription eyeglasses can range from 240 to almost 1,000 Canadian dollars. 85 Spectacles are not a ‘one-off’ intervention. Most users need to update their prescription and, thus, their eyeglasses periodically. This is especially applicable for children, who typically need to update their prescription every one to two years.

Inefficiencies in LMIC supply chains and added costs make glasses prohibitively expensive for the consumer, including inefficient international shipping, high import taxes, costly inventory management, and costly in-country logistics. Due to a lack of competition, retailers charge high margins on optical products, including reading glasses, this drives up the final landed cost in most settings. Due to the impact of duties and taxes, international players are considering local manufacturing options. Trial partnerships are being initiated in regions where local production costs align closely with those of major production hubs such as China. It is argued that international importing introduces not only tariff barriers but also non-tariff barriers, such as delays at the border for customs clearance and additional quality checks.

Among the various supply chain inefficiencies, import tariffs currently represent one of the major additional costs for eyeglasses (see table 28). The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) published research in 2024 on import duties for eyewear in several LMICs, showing that tariffs for both lenses and glasses are generally higher than those for compared to vaccines, for example. On average, LMICs impose tariffs that are 3.3 per cent higher for lenses compared to other medical products such as vaccines. However, in some countries, the difference is even more pronounced. For

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example, Zambia and Sri Lanka have a tariff gap exceeding 15 per cent between lenses and vaccines. While 84 per cent of LMICs offer duty-free allowances for vaccines, only 41 per cent extend these allowances to lenses and 31 per cent to glasses. Advocating for the classification of eyeglasses as medical products in LMICs could potentially help facilitate lower import tariffs.

Table 28: Illustrative import duties for reading glasses, frames, and lenses

Country Reading Glasses Frames Lenses
Bangladesh 25% 25% 10%
Cambodia 7% 15% 7%
Kenya 0% 10% 0%
Nigeria 1% 7.5%i 0%
India 0% 0% 0%
Indonesia 10% 10% 5%
South Africa 0% 0% 0%

iEYElliance internal analysis↩︎