HUNTING and sporting guns manufactured in Peshawar would soon be shipped to the US market. An American firm has placed an order with a local arms maker to import some 20,000 pistols.

“The first consignment of 500 pistols of 7.62 calibre (30 bore) is scheduled to be dispatched in October,” says M. Zarar Imtenan, manager, marketing, Pakistan Hunting and Sporting Arms Development Company (PHSADC).

The order valued at $2.2 million is to be executed by June next year when the import permit, issued by the US government, is due to expire. The order was placed after the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives approved the product for import into the US.

“This can serve as a unique opening for the sporting and hunting arms manufacturers of Peshawar to benefit in the longer run,” says Noman Wazir, Chief Executive Officer, PHSADC, a subsidiary of the Federal Ministry of Industries.

The PHSADC was set up in 2006 to organise the local arms manufacturers to export the locally produced international hunting and sporting brands by applying reverse engineering. It has been actively engaged with arms makers in Peshawar and Darra Adamkhel’s, interacting with a select group of local units to improve their production standards. It’s been facilitating them by promoting their products abroad and marketing for them.

Currently, the PHSADC is also negotiating with another US firm that wants to import 30 bore pistols and shotguns from Pakistan. The deal is about 2500 pistols and shot guns to be imported every month by the firm for a period of about two years.

The deal is said to be in an advance stage and a contract between the two sides will be made once the Pakistani products are formally approved by the US Bureau of Firearms.

The PHSADC sources are hopeful of getting the approval since the 30 bore pistol is already being imported by another US company with shipment to it beginning October. The second order, according to the PHSADC circles, is valued at $4.1 million.

Sporting and hunting arms produced in Darra Adamkhel, have also made inroads into foreign markets. Guns manufactured in Darra would shortly be introduced in the Lebanese market. According to PHSADC officials, some 325 pump action shot guns and 155 double barrel shotguns, valued at $80,000, are about to be exported to Lebanon.

An Australian company also wants to import .22 Lever Action Rifle for which Islamabad has already issued the export NOC. “ As many as 100 rifles per quarter will be shipped to Australia. The first consignment will be dispatched soon,” says Imtenan.

A British company has shown interest in importing handmade 12 bore side-by-side shotguns. The product will have to be approved by the European Commission’s “Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The handmade guns, requiring superb craftsmanship, sell at a price of $1170 per piece. It takes two to three months to manufacture a handmade gun. To meet the European standards, PHSADC is importing testing and inspection gauges to ensure and maintain quality standards.

Besides, the PHSADC is in the process to outsource the manufacturing of a few critical parts of the side-by-side shotgun, a replica of Wesley & Scott.

Peshawar houses some 37 registered units, whereas Darra has 16 large factories and numerous small workshops, capable of manufacturing export quality arms.

According to the PHSADC research, with an annual growth rate of 7.3 per cent, the international trade of sporting and hunting guns, shotguns, pistols and knives totaled $9.7 billion in 2009.

By redefining the sector’s priorities and direction, business circles believe, Pakistan can benefit from the growing international sporting and hunting trade. “We have cheap labour, basic infrastructure, raw material, etc to compete in the international hunting and sporting market,” says Nauman Wazir, a Peshawar based industrialist, spearheading PHSADC as its unpaid CEO.

A growth in hunting and sporting arms exports would also help the PHSADC to become a financially self-sustainable company. It earns three per cent on exports.

The PHSADC is presently working with four Peshawar units, helping them improve their production processes and introducing their products to the international markets.