August 18, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 19, 1424

Over three million Hajis perform Hajj every year. Nearly quite as many are said to be in Makkah and Madina during the last ten days of Ramzan.

Going by the (minimum) figures for Pakistani Hajis, each carries about $400 in cash for spot purchases during Hajj. (This is the sum, which each Haji gets from the amount deposited along with the Hajj application.)

This adds up to way beyond a billion dollars. Add to this another couple of billion dollars which people carry over and above the afore-mentioned sum. All this is spent in a very short period of about 50 to 60 days.

It would be safe to assume that a large part, say half, of the $400 per head is spent on the daily meals, it still leaves nearly three billion dollars for shopping around.

(Please note that all the other expenses like boarding, lodging, transport for mass transit— from and to Jeddah, from Makkah to Mina and Arafat and then from Makkah to Madinah etc- - are all paid for in lump sum before one boards a plane for the Hajj journey).

I may add here that all these figures and estimates of market size are based on personal observations during my Hajj travel recently.

One might also recall that Hajj is usually performed by well to do persons - those with money to spare from immediate needs. It is the upper middle class and the rich, who constitute the bulk of Hajis. A good part belongs to the ‘very rich’ slot.

A slice of this $3 billion is certainly worth going after. And we have an unlimited number of items, marketing of which can fetch us handsome results.

We can also aim at the eatables/food market, which alone should be close to a total of a billion dollars. The list of marketable items that Pakistan can take on its agenda is virtually limitless, endless. You name it, and it will fit in snugly.

One can begin with food items: vegetables, fruits, meet, beef, poultry etc. Tea bags are one area where instant success can be hoped for.And when one talks of tea,can milk be far behind, specially for Hajis from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh. With a quarter million Hajis between the three of them, Pakistan’s tetra pack milk companies should have easy selling.

While we may be weak when it comes to vegetables, we are strong contenders in the fruits segment. Oranges — maltas, kinoos, fruiters, ‘sangtras’, ‘mosammees’ — can be our strong suit for the years when Hajj falls in the winters. During summers our mangoes, with all their variety and superb tastes will be hard to beat.

We are also not too bad with other things such as bananas, ‘kharboozas’, ‘tarbooz’, ‘garma’, ‘sarda’.

Last but not the least are our dates. I may add here that some of these items, oranges, bananas and dates for instance, can be used as gifts and give-aways as I saw some companies/ countries doing.

Then come things like toilet soaps, tooth pastes, tooth brushes, combs, detergent powders, washing soaps and so on to formal and informal footwear, specially Hawai sandals and other kinds of slippers/footwear. Prayer mats, blankets, ‘khais’, ‘durrees’, bed-linen, cotton cloth (lattha) for ‘kafan’, towels both of the size of ahram and normal daily use can form another list.

Jewelry, cosmetics and perfumes, ‘hina’, shampoos, hair colours and other preparations will also find customers.

A rather popular range can be ready-to-wear garments both for men and women. For instance, thousands of Hajis from Nigeria and other African countries can be chosen for their large numbers (and possibly absence of garment industry in black Africa?). When targeting them for their robes, slacks, head gear (both for men and women), care must be taken to determine as to what is fashionable in terms of colours, patterns and cuts etc. The same holds true for hajis from Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Libya, Egypt, etc, and Arab countries (Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE/Gulf, Yemen, etc and Saudi Arabia itself).

In the east Malaysia and Indonesia are sources of quite a few hundred thousands of hajis. Most of them are well to do (apparently more than the general run of Pakistanis, Africans, Indians and Bangladeshis).

Turkish Hajis are a world onto themselves. Not only they appeared to be the richest amongst the whole lot, they are also very large in numbers. Turkey is also an industrial power in its own right. After China, Korea and Taiwan etc, Turkey is probably the biggest occupier of shelf space in the retail markets of the two holy cities. So going for the Turkish segment of the Hajj market can be a challenge as well as a source of big orders, if we can give them the right quality.

One little thing that surprised me for its marketability as well as its use as a give-away to attract customers, was the glass bangles (‘choorian’) worn by Pakistani women. I know of instances where Pakistani women gifted their bangles to curious Malaysian and Indonesian women. The recipients took them with enthusiasm and gratitude. Small stalls can be arranged at strategic points around the ‘Harem Sharif’ (after due process of municipal permissions) where bangles and other give-aways can be distributed selectively or liberally, with the ultimate aim of inducing customers to buy Pakistani goods. These are only some of the items that I have been able to think of. Many others will definitely think of many other items.

In the consumer durables category, it will not be a bad idea if we could begin with things like fans, irons, water coolers, Gerry cans, plastic/ melamine crockery, tableware, sewing machines, transistor radio sets, TV sets, toys, alarm clocks, wall clocks, even toy wrist watches. The two holy cities also have many shops selling suit cases, brief cases and travel bags. In brief the list is unending. Name any thing and it has a ready market.

The Hajj market also has a part two, almost as big as the one described above. This is the Ramzan Umra season. Nearly as many people (three million or so) with about the same amount of ‘spending power’ visit the holy cities during Ramzan also. Cumulative size of the two segments would not be less than $4.5 to 5.0 billion . Aiming at just one per cent of it in the first year alone means $45 to $50 million. With this start, aiming at 5 per cent or $200 to 250 million in three years should not be considered difficult.

Our biggest competitor would be China followed by Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Iran and not the least Saudi Arabia itself. However, only China is an all pervasive source of goods. From 1 ‘riyal’ caps to Hawai sandals (chappals) to hi-fi sound systems to video cameras to blankets to tableware to garments, one will find Chinese products on shelfs in each shop. Most other countries are confined to segments.

Pakistan can launch its Hajj marketing operation immediately, basing its initial decisions on the information already available with its export houses and commercial attaches with exposure to the market. But expansion and going for bigger slices of the market would need a host of proper studies/ market surveys which can be begun as we ship the first consignments to Makkah and Madina.

This venture too calls for consultative sessions with the industry, which the EPB will hopefully organise.