Pakistan has one of the world’s largest and most well-known sports goods industries. It exports a significant portion of its sports goods to some of the most well-known international brands, such as Decathlon, Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lotto, Mitre, Wilson, Micassa, Umbro and Diadora.

CONTRIBUTION OF SPORTS GOODS SECTOR IN PAKISTAN ECONOMY

As per Nilson’s report on the study of the sports goods manufacturing sector published in 2016. There were around 55,000, skilled and unskilled, within almost 1500 units around the city. Pakistan has seen a significant increase over the years. As per the SMEDA report on the sports goods sector, Pakistan now has almost 6000 SMEs. Moreover, it employs nearly 200,000 to 250000 skilled employees and 100,000-150000 unskilled employees. Moreover, if we consider the composition of the sports goods industry it is mainly made up of men with a tiny percentage of women working. We can generally find them in football stitching departments. Since these manufacturing industries of sports goods require extended working hours, heavy tasks, and late night shifts, women find it challenging to work here. Moreover, many employers hesitate too. The table below shows the contribution of the following and additionally demonstrates how the sports goods industry has contributed to the economy of Pakistan. The contribution towards exports decreased in 2020 mainly because of Covid restrictions. Moreover, the capacity utilization is also around 85-90%. This means there is still enough places for the sports industry to increase its production so that overall export and revenue could increase. There are several ways that the sports goods industry could use to increase capacity utilization by increasing the working hours by bringing in temporary employees or making workers work overtime. Another way to increase the capacity utilization is to outsource some production or reduce machine maintenance.

    EXPORTS

Pakistan is known worldwide as one of the leading manufacturers of football along with China and India. Cricket bats, balls, hockey sticks, goalkeeper gloves and footballs are some of the products that Pakistan is known to export. The primary market for the exports of Pakistan’s sports equipment is Germany, the United States, UK and Netherlands. As far as the exports are concerned on average, 31918.533(000) sports goods have been exported worldwide from 2010 to 2015. This means that sports goods almost made up 1.42% of the GDP on average from 2010-2015.

Moreover, Sports exports from 2016 onwards till 2020 have shown mixed growth. However, the growth was negative in the first two years i.e., 2016 and 2017. As per the official reports, the exports of sports products and equipment dropped by almost 5% compared to 2015. Overall, the five-year trend from 2016 to 2022 showed a rather negative growth. In 2020, the export value of Sports Goods was approximately USD 177 million, out of which USD 125 million (approx.) was the export of inflatable footballs, and in 2022 the exports of sports goods declined significantly. From 224 thousand it dropped to 177 thousand. This was mainly because of the Covid outbreak and restrictions that Pakistan and the world faced. The table below shows the export of Pakistan sports goods industry for the year 2016-2020 

AMOUNT IN U.S $ THOUSAND

PAKISTAN SPORTS GOODS INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTION IN THE YEAR 2021-2022

For the fiscal year 2021-2022, exports of the country increased by 35.23 % for the first three quarters when compared to the fiscal year 2020-21. Pakistan has nearly exported approximately 259.851 million sports goods as compared to 192.160 in the month of July-march of the fiscal year 2020-2021. During the fiscal year 2021-2022, the export of inflatable football rose by 40%, bringing the overall football exports to 192.160 million. The gloves exports also increased by 16.36% compared to last year; thus, the overall glove exports during 2021-2022 were us$ 56.702 million.

 According to PBS data, 680 thousand dozen footballs worth Rs. 7.92 billion were shipped between July and August 2022, representing a 52.93% increase in number and a 113.14% increase in value. This was mainly due to the upcoming FIFA World cup held in Qatar. The data also shows a value gain of 29.87% in the export of gloves used in different sports, as well as a quantity growth of 8.85%. In the first two months of the fiscal year 2022–23, Pakistan exported 515 thousand dozen gloves for Rs. 2.538 billion. According to PBS data, exports of other sporting products rose 42.75 percent between July and August 2022, from Rs. 2.508 billion to Rs. 3.58 billion.

  GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES FOR THE GROWTH OF SPORTS GOODS INDUSTRY

1.01.       LATEST INITIATIVE

As for the latest initiative by the government of Pakistan it has given a chance to a Chinese firm to develop an industrial park within the adjoining areas of Lahore. By the name of “Challenge Fashion Industrial Park” The value of that industrial park is around $150 million. This industrial park will be home to many stated of art fabric units, dyeing units as well as garment manufacturing units to export sportswear from Pakistan to different regions of the world like America Europe.  This initiative when fully functional will be able to create around 10000 to 11000 jobs for the local people.

 SPORTS INDUSTRIES DEVELOPMENT CENTER (SIDC)

Sports Industries Development Centre (SIDC) is a small and medium size development. This development centre gets its funds from the ministry of industries and production and SMEDA. The main purpose of this development centre is to help the sports industry to try new technologies that can help in mechanising thermos laminated balls by providing production facilities such as technical advisory services mold making and training of the workers to use the latest technologies. Moreover, this development center will help to sustain Pakistan’s position within the international market as a high-quality inflatable and soccer ball exporter.  Another objective of this development center is to train workers in molding technologies as well as train them to make thermos mechanized balls. As well as develop prototypes for the industries. An additional objective is to provide the small manufactures manufacturing facilities so that they could easily export the soccer balls easily.

ACHIEVEMENTS / OUTCOMES

• ·         Until December 2020 this project has almost made 2928000 bladders, 2027400 rubber nozzles and almost 72000 and 46000 thermos balls and basketballs respectively.
• ·         SIDC has also made samples for volleyball and rugby balls. It has also produced different dyes for manufacturing bladders.
• ·         SIDC has helped small and medium size enterprises develop around 2.928 million balls.
• ·         Moreover SIDC has helped almost 13 companies set up their thermos units with the help of their links with imported machine suppliers and reverse engineering.
• ·         SIDC is an ISO 9001:2015 QMS certified organization.

     PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Product Development Centre is a project of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and Pakistan’s government to facilitate the sports sector to increase their exports, enhance productivity and produce a skilled labour force. It will provide laboratory testing, prototype sampling and raw material for several products including hockey sticks, cricket and baseball bats, fishing tackles, golf sticks, rackets, etc. It would provide technical consultancy and facilities to develop imported machinery, industrial units, and skilled workforce for the sports industry. Moreover, it will also provide lab testing for the products and the raw material. Furthermore, it also aims to develop imported machinery locally.

SIALKOT BUSINESS AND COMMERCE CENTRE

Sialkot Business and Commerce Centre is a joint initiative of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) with cost estimation of Rs 341.67 million. It would provide display facilities in promoting, marketing, and providing exposure for entrepreneurial businesses in international market and bring export earnings. The Display and Convention Centre would include a conference hall, business incubation Centre, auditorium, labor training, technical consultancy, advertisement, documentation and visa facility, trade delegation, testing facility, prototype development and annual reports.