JEANS IN PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN & COUNTRY ANALYSIS

Pakistan is a good producer of denim related products, including fashion jeans. Pakistan has a population of over 180 million and a per capita income of around 1400 USD. Pakistan is a producer of cotton and agricultural base country.

Pakistan enjoys a good reputation in denim business as many denim mill producers are avaiable as well as garment makers. The main geographical areas for jeans production area located in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad. Big companies, medium, and small garment companies are present in the country. The production of jeans is export based to EU and USA. Pakistan does not enjoy the same duty free benefits like competitor Bangladesh but recently some duty benefits have been approved by EU due to natural disasters in the country.

Two facts have influence the production of jeans in the country:

1. The political situation in recent years has created some civil unrest in certain times of the year.We must wait until next elections in May in order to see the political outcome of such elections. If Pakistan can get political stability in the country there is no doubt that is a major key player in the jeans industry.

2. Recent floodings in cotton production areas have influenced the availability of this commodity in the country. Speculation on this commodity forced prices up and some shortages of products due to stock piling of speculators. The situation was temporary but this is always a risk when natural disaster occur.

Many jeans production companies in Pakistan are available. You can find fully verticial companies (from spinning to end garment product) and non vertical garment makers (they only produce garments). There are few big companies that dominate the export market and many smaller ones that can work as "satellites" or net exporters as well for small productions. Big brands such as H&M, Zaral, Levis, Mango, Diesel, etc, they all produce garments in Pakistan.

Therefore, Pakistan is today an important player in the fashion jeans industry but the potential to become a more important player can be improved. Management and workforce is of hard working nature and quite professional.

Geographical situation of Pakistan makes it also an attractive place to ship garments to EU since it takes around 22 days vessel transit time.


With an hourly wage of $0.55 per hour4, Pakistan ranks third on labor costs in a five-country sample. Bangladesh has the lowest hourly wage ($0.32 per hour). Energy efficiency and reliability affect both the quality and volume of textile and apparel manufacturing and are of prime importance to the sector. Two studies have identified electricity cost as a constraint on Pakistan’s manufacturing competitiveness. Pakistan ranks third in electricity costs ($0.071/kWh) and Bangladesh, with an average cost of $0.053 per kWh, has the lowest electricity cost. In its analysis of the denim jean value chain, "FIAS" describes the effect of energy constraints in Pakistan’s cotton ginning sector: ―The spinners are adversely affected by both the price and the unreliability in the supply of electricity, in some cases being forced to resort to self-generation with extra costs‖. Pakistan’s tax structure for textiles and apparel inputs is also relatively straightforward and appears to be cost neutral compared to other countries. However, slow duty and VAT rebate procedures may deter some investors.


Jeans manufcturers in Pakistan are in generally well equipped with imported technology from Europe, USa and China. Also westerners experts do work and supervise some production procedures in order to constantly improve standards. Mills keep growing and expanding, therefefore garment makers do as well.



Main export markets for jeans production is EU, USA, Turkey, UK, and UAE. We expect a great future for  jeans production in Pakistan provided that political stability is assured and power supply improves in supply and costing.

Please see the following production input cost ranking for Pakistan compared to its top competitors:

Cost Category	1		2		3		4		5
Labor cost	Bangladesh		Cambodia		Pakistan		India		China
Labor hours	Bangladesh		China		Pakistan		India		Cambodia
Electricity cost	Bangladesh		China		Pakistan		India		Cambodia
Ocean transport cost		China         Bangladesh/				Pakistan		India
Land transport cost	Bangladesh		Pakistan		India		China		Cambodia
Building cost	China		Bangladesh		Cambodia		India		Pakistan

From Cottom to jeans!!! A Pakistan tradition!!!!




Pakistan has very big fully vertical companies that produce from denim to jeans. These factories do usually produce for big international brands in America and Europe. There are also many non vertical small and medium size garment manufacturers which provide versatility for small brands willing to produce in the country. Pakistan is probably one of the best countries for producing denim related products due to its technological investments done during the Musharraft government after 2000.
Some of the best companies, vertical and non vertical,  in the country are stated below:

Artistic Garments
"AGI"
Digital Apparel Pvt
"DIGITAL"
Soorty Industries
"SOORTY"
Rajby Industries
"RAJBY"
US Apparel
"USAPPAREL"
Naveena
"NAVEENA"