The year of the landa bazar

One trader’s loss is another’s profit

By Abdullah Niazi and Shahab Omer

If there was ever a time to go to the landa, it is this year. Let us explain. You see, most if not all of the clothes you find in flea-markets and thrift stores are hand-medowns that have been given away in charity by people in countries like the United States, England, Australia, Japan, and South Korea. And because the charities get these clothes for free, they sell them in bulk per-Kg at practically nothing. The clothes then make their way to thirdworld countries like Pakistan where they are sorted and sent to the market.

For example, the Catholic Church might collect a brand-new Ralph Lauren shirt as part of a clothes drive in Boston. Donors often think that the clothes will be shipped off to the third world to be distributed freely among people that need them. This is a common misconception.

In reality, charitable organisations end up collecting so many articles of clothing that it would be difficult and expensive to package and deliver them to the needy. Since charitable organisations get these clothes for free, what they do instead is find a retailer willing to buy the clothes from them at a set price per Kg and use the money from this to engage in other charitable activities.

Now, that brand-new Ralph Lauren shirt would have cost $110 at retail price in the US. But as part of a 50Kg bundle being bought by a used-clothes merchant at a rate of say $2 per KG, that shirt ends up costing literal cents. These bundles of clothes are then sorted, packaged, and shipped to third-world countries where they are sold at low rates. A shirt in the US that would have cost $110 in the US (Rs 31,000) will be available at a flea-market in Lahore for as low as Rs 1000-1500 ($4-5).

It is a classic example of the economic concept of arbitrage, in which you buy the same product in one market at a lower price and sell it in another market at a significantly higher price. But then why is this year going to be better for the landa? Normally, the thrifted clothes that arrive in Pakistan are so cheap that merchants from other countries such as Turkey, Afghanistan, and India buy these clothes from Pakistan at a slightly marked up price.

That’s right. Pakistan imports these landa-bound clothes at such cheap rates that they then sift through the clothes, find the most high-quality product in the best condition, and export them in a strange case of double-arbitrage. Except this year things are a little different. Because of the continuing forex crisis in the country, the government has set a 300% import duty on these clothes.

As a result, the clothes will become too expensive to export, meaning the buyers from countries like Iran and Afghanistan have largely said they won’t be buying the clothes. This means two things: the first is that the clothes at the landa this year are bound to get more expensive and add to the inflationary trends in the country. The second is that because foreign merchants will not be picking up these clothes, the clothes will be of a better quality and be more in quantity. So how will this play out? To start, we need to get into the finer details of landa economics.

The landa arbitrage market

It is a pretty linear system. Charities, churches, and community centres collect clothes that people give away in foreign countries. The clothes are mostly hand-me-downs. As we mentioned earlier, charitable organisations do not have the time or the resources to sort and deliver these clothes to people that need them. Instead, they pack them up into huge bundles that weigh up to 60Kgs and sell them.

Who buys these bundles? There are retailers that have made a business out of hand-me-down clothing. In the UK, for example, there are enterprising Pakistani expats that store the clothes in warehouses. The first thing they do is open these bundles up and sort the clothes by categories. Pants on one end, shirts on the other, shoes in a different corner and so on and so forth. After this, each pile is sorted for quality, and by the end you have different kinds of items categorised by quality, age, and by brand. Out of this, the best quality products are sent off to thrift stores within the country. So if the warehouse is in Bradford, England — the best clothes will go to thrift stores in Bradford where they will fetch the best price.

The rest of the clothes are then exported. They are fumigated (this is where the infamous ‘landa smell’ comes from), once again bundled up (this time pre-sorted) and then shipped off to third-world countries. The market for this is massive, and Pakistan is one of the major importers of these clothes. According to a 2015 article in The Guardian, most donated clothes are exported overseas. A massive 351m kilograms of clothes (equivalent to 2.9bn T-shirts) are traded annually from Britain alone. The top five destinations are Poland, Ghana, Ukraine, Benin, and yes, Pakistan. Low-income families then shop at these markets, where winter clothes are in high-demand.

The report estimated that globally the wholesale used clothing trade is valued at more than £2.8 billion. It is a textbook example of arbitrage. Donated clothes are sold dirt cheap in developed countries, but since they are not readily available to low-income families in the third world, their value is higher in that market. Arbitrage is essentially a risk-free way of making money by exploiting the difference between the price of a given good on two different markets. In fact, an example of arbitrage often cited in textbooks is that of vintage clothing, and how a given set of old clothes might cost $50 at a thrift store or an auction, but at a vintage boutique or online, fashion conscious customers might pay $500 for the same clothes.

Pakistan plays a significant role in this arbitrage, and in the past few years the demand for these clothes has only increased. According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), during the last fiscal year (FY 2020-21), the import of used clothing increased by 90 per cent to $309.56 million and it weighed 732,623 metric tons. The year before that, there was an increase of 83.43 percent in terms of price. Pakistan imported 186,299 metric tons of pre-used garments during the first two months of the FY 2021-22 (July-August), which makes up for an increase of 283 per cent over the same period of last year, which translates to a spending of $79 million.

How it works

Now, this is where things get really interesting. You see, the shop-owners at the Landa are not the ones directly importing these clothes. Bulk importers get the clothes in massive quantities worth millions of dollars and bring them to Pakistan in containers. Land owners then buy these containers without seeing the contents inside — which means the quality of clothes you are getting depends on the luck of the draw.

“Be it an importer of pre-used clothes, a wholesaler, a shopkeeper or a wheelbarrow, no one has ever lost in this business. The main reason for this is that the price fix is only for the imported container and not for the preused clothes coming out of it. We take the preused clothes from the importer or wholesaler where the clothes are delivered in bundles and the price of the bundle depends on its weight, grading and type,” says Shams Khan. A native of Peshawar, he has been selling clothes to Lahore’s landa bazar for decades now.

According to him, there is no way anyone can make a loss in this business because of how ridiculously cheap the second-hand clothes are. One needs to understand that these clothes are extremely undesirable in their home markets, and the traders that buy them there buy them from charities that want the masses of clothes off their hands and quickly, which means they settle for very cheap rates. “Very simply speaking, if I buy a bundle that has been tagged as B category, and the bundle weighs around 60 kilograms, then I have to pay RS 500 to RS 600 per kilogram for it. So this 60Kg bundle ends up costing me around Rs 36,000. Now, we take the example of t-shirts, then it takes around 18-20 t-shirts to make one kilogram. This means for Rs 36,000 I have hypothetically bought 1200-1800 t-shirts if that is all there was in the bundle,” he explains.

“When we sort the bundle approximately 500 to 600 shirts come out that look brand new and these shirts are of famous brands and easily sell for between Rs 300 to 500. Now if I sell 500 shirts myself for Rs 300, it becomes RS 150,000 and think for yourself, I bought this bundle for 36,000, so I have more than tripled my initial investment. The other aspect is that I do not sell these 500 shirts myself but I sell them to five different shopkeepers at the rate of Rs 150 per shirt. Even then I earn Rs 75,000 and make a profit. The rest of the 1000 shirts that were not as high quality I can sell to smaller shop owners or roadside merchants. At the rate of Rs 50 per shirt, I can earn another Rs 50,000. There is no losing here.”

There is no loss here because, as we have gone to painful lengths to explain, there is no loss in arbitrage. The shirts are so dirt cheap in the countries they come from because they are considered worthless. Even if they were given a price, no one would buy them since brand new clothes are not that expensive either. They are sold cheap according to weight, and since people here don’t have access to cheap new clothes, they buy the second-hand products for significantly less than what they would have to pay for new clothes.

This year’s quandary — the import duty

The issue this year is the increased import duty of 300% that has importers up in arms. This increase is expected to increase the prices of used items, but due to the decrease in exports, market experts are also indicating that a large number of these clothes will enter the market. That means even though prices will go up, the quality of the clothes will be better and people could find practically new clothes at second-hand rates.

“It is a 300 percent tax. Call it valuation duty or whatever but it is essentially quadrupling the price of the warm clothes that the poorest segments of society buy and wear, says Usman Farooqui, General Secretary of Pakistan Second Hand Merchants Association. According to him, a container of Landa clothes that used to cost RS 700,000 last year now costs Rs 2.7 million.

“The poor importer, who was already worried about the rising value of the dollar, is now further burdened by taxes. Landa is already subject to several taxes, including sales tax, in addition to valuation duty, due to which Landa's clothes are becoming more expensive,” he lamented.

“The previous government had increased the regulatory duty by 10%, and now the value has been increased from 36 cents to 1 dollar and with this increase, second hand clothing has become expensive, up to 300%, and has become beyond the reach of the poor. Due to this increase, hundreds of our containers remain at the ports and we continue to pay fines on the basis of detention. Imports of used clothes in Pakistan are worth around $100 million.

{Note from the editorial team: The $100 million is an estimation given by Mr Faroouqi. The latest figures available from the PBS are from 2021 and show an import value of $80 million. Figures for this year are not available yet.}

On the other hand, Faisal Memon, man- ager of a company in Karachi, which has been in the business of importing and exporting Landa clothes for the past two decades, told Profit that due to unavailability of full stock with his company in winter he could not export as much as he was doing in the past.

“The increase in taxes and duties has not only affected the prices but also the export of these used garments from here. When the government increased the taxes, many importers did not clear their containers from the port because they thought that the government might withdraw or reduce the tax. Due to increase in taxes, the trend of importing containers of used clothes and toys is also decreasing,” he says.

“We have customers from Iran, Afghanistan, South Africa and Turkey. When the container is bought from the market, it is graded and the supply is sent to each customer in their country according to their demand. The market situation this time was that most of the foreign customers were willing to pay the asking price for used clothes and shoes, but due to non-availability of goods, many exporters could not meet their demand.”

Mian Fayyaz, a trader of Lahore Landa Bazaar, informed Profit that due to high duty and taxes on used clothes, the big merchants of Karachi are not able to supply these clothes to other cities at the moment due to which the business of the shopkeepers is also going down.

“Before the summer season started, I visited the importers in Karachi twice, from whom I have been buying for the last ten years, but they could not supply me what I wanted. These merchants do have used clothes but they are mostly old and of poor quality. These types of clothes are usually sold on carts in markets but since I am a shopkeeper and I have customers who are into used clothes and they demand from me a quality that is brand new.”

“In our market in Lahore, people are either selling the stock of the previous season or the clothes they are ordering from Karachi are of the previous season. In this situation, these used clothes will become very expensive and our business will slow down,” Mian added.

Enter the Insta thrift stores

Ultimately, will anyone benefit from this? On the one hand, better clothes will hit the landa market this year. On the other hand, prices will go up. Importers, shopkeepers, and shoppers will all largely be unhappy. But there is one segment of the market that could reap the benefits if they play their cards right — Instagram thrift stores.

In the past few years, things in the landa have started to change. People from relative- ly affluent backgrounds, mostly women, have started visiting the landa and sifting through the second-hand but branded clothes and buying them in bulk. They then sell them online through Instagram, marketing themselves as sustainable fashion brands dealing in ‘pre-loved’ clothes.

A big market is students. College going students need clothes, and a lot of the time they do not have the money to buy designer clothes that are a status symbol in elite universities. So for those students on a budget that want to keep up with their richer peers, the landa has been a saviour for decades. While the clothes might not be in the best condition, they are branded, comfortable and stylish.

Middle and upper-middle class sensibilities keep people away from the landa, because the market is dingy and there is a complex about buying used clothes. However, young people are able to traverse shabby markets and have less of an ego when they are on a budget. International brands are readily available at the landa and with some washing and sprucing up, entire wardrobes can be made for dirt cheap. These clothes are often even noticed by their high-rolling peers, who recognise the brands as not easily available in Pakistan. This was all there was to it, until of course, Instagram came about.

The trajectory has actually been quite ingenious, and the way some of these pages operate is truly enterprising. “I used to get almost all of my clothes from the landa since I started studying in Karachi,” says one student from IBA that runs a thrift store on the side when she isn’t busy with her studies. “I’ve always gotten compliments from friends and strangers alike for my outfits. It isn’t just as simple as going to the flea-market, you really have to have an eye for the right stuff and that means knowing about fashion.”

It is actually very enterprising work to be going to the landa and then selling clothes from there through Instagram. People do not like going to flea-markets, so these people with an eye for fashion and an understanding of landa dynamics go to the market for them. Many of these women then buy clothes and shoes in bulk, bring them back home, clean them or fix them if they need fixing, and after that photograph them aesthetically. Some of them even model the clothes themselves or get their friends to model them for them. “There is barely any additional cost. There is the Careem fare that I incur going to and from the landa, and then sometimes I wash the clothes again, and then I put them on, set my camera on timer-mode and model them myself too. I upload the pictures and start getting DMs, my customers then bank-transfer me the payment and they pay for shipping too,” says the online thrift store owner we spoke to.

They brand their products as ‘preloved’ or ‘rescued’ and supporting sustainable fashion, which they claim is environmentally friendly. All of this coupled with well-done photography means that middle and upper-middle class people that see these pages are more than happy to buy from them, especially since they are so cheap.

And all of this is why this year could be big for the Insta thrift stores. For starters, they have a very good understanding of what products are high value and what brands sell better and go for better rates. On top of this, they have the added advantage of a clientele that buys sitting from home and not by going to dingy flea markets. As a result, people will be willing to pay more — especially for branded products.

A shirt that came to the landa at Rs 200 last year and was sold at Rs 500 was already selling at Rs 1100 on these online thrift stores within minutes of being posted. This year, people are more likely to buy a branded Rs 2000 shirt from an online thrift store rather than a Rs 800 shirt from the actual landa market. That is where the opportunity lies. And as soon as more containers start to be released and the clothes hit the market, it will be an opportunity worth cashing in on. n

By Nisma Riaz

In Pakistan, gold is more than just a precious metal - it’s a cultural powerhouse. A symbol of honour and wealth that binds relationships together with its glittering allure. Imagine having a Desi wedding without the dazzling display of gold jewellery visible from miles away. Unthinkable! And if you dare to try, you’ll never hear the end of it.

But gold’s value extends far beyond its cultural significance. In times of economic turmoil, it becomes a beacon of hope - a store of value that shields many from the harsh impacts of a rapidly depreciating currency.

As inflation skyrockets to unprecedented heights and the rupee plummets to all-time lows, there’s only one other currency that’s acceptable besides the highly coveted dollar - gold.

Picture our economy as a sinking ship. Dollars are the lifeboats, but they’re in short supply. What’s the next best thing? Gold. It’s the closest thing to a lifejacket in these treacherous waters. That’s how Pakistanis see it as they scramble to amass as much gold as possible in a desperate bid to retain their purchasing power against the rapidly dwindling rupee.

Where does gold in Pakistan come from and has the supply been steady?

Despite its limited foreign reserves, Pakistan’s population exhibits a strong affinity for gold. This fervent desire for the precious metal, coupled with the country’s lack of domestic gold reserves, necessitates a reliance on imports to meet the demand.

Investment-grade gold typically consists of 24-carat gold, the purest form of the metal. The most desirable sources of investment gold are found primarily in the Americas and the Middle East. It is customary for Pakistanis visiting Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage to purchase gold and bring it back for their relatives. Similarly, individuals returning from the United

States are often asked to bring back jewellery as a favour.

The New York Times reported on Pakistan’s gold trade, describing its coastline along the Arabian Sea as a popular destination for gold smugglers. In October 1993, during Benazir Bhutto’s second term as Prime Minister, Dubai-based bullion trader Abdul Razzak Yaqub (ARY) proposed that the government regulate the trade by issuing him an import licence. That licence was eventually granted under some very controversial circumstances. Profit did a detailed story on ARY’s beginnings in the gold to the media conglomerate it is today.

Despite this proposal, Pakistan’s gold trade remains largely unregulated to this day. As a result, buyers remain sceptical about the quality and authenticity of the gold they purchase.

Sarmaaya records the fluctuations in gold prices per tola.. Within the span of one week, the price of one tola of gold has gone from Rs 242,898 to Rs 231,939, as shown in the graph below. This shows that gold is a highly volatile asset.

Moreover, gold prices have consistently risen in the past five years. The price of gold per ounce was Rs 156,219 in April, 2018, soaring to Rs 569,386 in April 2023.

Dollarisation and its sequel for gold

Profit will guide you on an exploration of how gold may emerge as the second most valuable or simply an acceptable currency if the country exhausts its dollar reserves.

Amidst hyperinflation in Pakistan, retaining the rupee’s value has precipitated a daily erosion of purchasing power for people’s wealth, provoking grave concern. In stable times, the focus is on achieving superior returns. However, during inflationary periods, concerns transcend returns and become a matter of survival. Pakistanis are habituated to an annual inflation rate of 8-10%. Panic remains contained as long as the rate stays within these bearable figures. However, when it exceeds these figures - in the current case, at a historical high of 35.4% no less- panic ensues.

So what is going on?

Nasim Beg, Director at Arif Habib Corporation, elucidated the current crisis for

Profit’s readers by outlining the trajectory that Pakistan has followed over the past 50 years, which has now brought it to the precipice of a possible default. “The situation is straightforward; Pakistan has inadequate foreign exchange earnings, rendering us incapable of purchasing the items we are accustomed to importing. Comparing imports and exports over the past 50 years reveals that we have consistently fallen short in meeting the cost of imports with the revenue generated from our exports.”

He continued, “In only six to seven years of these last 50 years have we seen a surplus. We have consistently borrowed money to pay for our imports, akin to using multiple credit cards to sustain a certain lifestyle without possessing the funds to pay off those credit card bills. Now all our credit cards have been maxed out and no one is willing to lend us more money to pay them off.”

The country therefore has had a perennial balance of payment problem for the past five decades.

According to Beg, “Friendly countries lent us money, artificially stabilising our currency. We received US aid during the Ayub, Zia and Musharraf eras. We can look back and say that our economy was robust. However, it was like an athlete on steroids and now they are realising their body is quite dysfunctional.”

In essence, Pakistan never developed the capacity to earn dollars or pay for imports because someone would always bail us out. Now that America’s vested interest in providing aid has greatly diminished and others have recognised Pakistan’s pattern of dependency, all the usual suspects are hesitant to offer further assistance.

Beg also emphasised how our reliance on aid and loans has hindered our development of productive forces to generate dollars through sources other than bailouts. And now there is a shortage of forex, so demand for dollars is skyhigh while supply is negligible.

But how does gold fit into this equation between rupee and dollar?

Well, the government is desperately trying to hold onto the few foreign reserves that it has left, which is why it has taken some drastic measures (administrative and otherwise) over the past year to stop haemorrhaging the greenback. That leaves the open market, but there are restrictions there as well that hinder supply in addition to the bid/offer being not only wider but higher than the interbank rates. Another option is to utilise the hawala system. Beg explained how this might not be the best alternative either. “Some individuals may have the option to use the hawala system if they have a bank account in Dubai or a similar location. They can obtain foreign currency in exchange for their rupees without leaving a digital trail to track the movement of currency. However, not everyone has this luxury. Furthermore, the recently imposed FATF has made money transfers even more challenging, leaving people with no choice but to seek other ways to protect their wealth.”

This is where gold comes into play.

“The uncertainty surrounding the rupee and the unavailability of dollars is causing people to turn to gold, which has now become the only other acceptable currency after the dollar,” shared Beg.

But gold does not come with its fair share of challenges.

Is gold the knight in shining armour that we think it is?

Pakistanis take the adage ‘not all that glitters is gold’ very seriously because we are cognisant of how easy it is to be duped into purchasing counterfeit or impure gold. Superficially, safeguarding your depreciating currency through gold might seem like a million dollar idea. However, as we hail from Pakistan, we wouldn’t recognise a million dollars if it struck us in the face.

As we have already established, Pakistan’s gold market is not formally regulated. It is difficult to ascertain whether the gold you purchase is pure and authentic. Moreover, there is also the apprehension of being burglarised, so it is not secure to retain large quantities of gold in your home either. Nevertheless, people are still procuring it.

In order to safely invest in gold, people seek branded and trustworthy traders. This is where ARY enters the scene, but we will address that shortly.

Firstly, let’s examine why gold might be a precarious investment. Gold prices are highly volatile and, unlike the dollar, gold prices in Pakistan are not purely defined by its trade in the Pakistani market. The rates we obtain for gold here are directly linked to the international rates at which gold is trading. As a result, fluctuations in global gold prices also impact Pakistan’s gold market.

Beg informed Profit that “The international price of gold is elevated right now due to the war in Ukraine. If there is an armistice tomorrow, gold prices will dip. If gold is trading at $1,990.30 today and then plummets to $1,500, the international price will translate into the gold market in Pakistan. I will awaken to discover that the gold I purchased for around Rs 570,000 is now worth Rs 426,000. I was safeguarding myself from the depreciating rupee but fluctuating international gold prices can still result in me being a loser.”

However, no matter how much gold prices may plummet, the downfall will not be as rapid or as significant as the rupee’s depreciation. But ultimately, gold is not the best investment.

What’s happening in the gold market?

What transpires when panicked masses all rush towards gold in a desperate attempt to evade going down with the rapidly collapsing economy? A shortage of gold emerges.

Haji Haroon, CEO of Chand Gold, informed Profit that “Our imports have ceased due to recent restrictions, lack of foreign reserves and the skyrocketing dollar rate.” He elaborated that it has become unfeasible to import non-essential products, resulting in a diminished supply of gold.

“Individuals are retaining their gold because it would be imprudent to sell when the rupee is anticipated to decline further,” Haroon shared.

He continued, stating that “The purchasing power of customers has suffered due to inflation and economic crisis. The gold we sell is predominantly in Dubai. Despite the imminent wedding season, jewellery is barely selling. We primarily sell gold bars, coins and nuggets to safeguard savings. With Eid and Ramadan coupled with hyperinflation, no one is in a position to spend on jewellery.”

Raihan Merchant, CEO of Z2C Limited, a prominent advertising agency based in Karachi, highlighted another reason for the current gold shortage. “Gold, over the last two years has become a commodity in which people can hoard money. Instead of keeping 20 crore rupees in cash in my house, if I can’t deposit that money into a bank account since it comes from

Director at

questionable sources or it is money that I haven’t declared in taxes, gold is a very easy way to park this money. Imagine the size and volume of that kind of money, it is not easy to store. When I keep it in the form of gold it becomes convenient and safe to store. So the supply is not just short because demand might be rising but also because many people also hoard gold to park their black money”, he explained, One thing is certain: what is transpiring in the gold market is expected and common in an economy headed towards default.

ARY’s deus ex machina moment

For anyone looking to make gold jewellery, it is typical to go with someone trusted whom they know to be authentic and good at the ‘making’ part of it. Similarly, a buyer purchasing pure gold as a means to preserve the value of his cash, will go with a reputable brand and ARY meets that requirement.

As with any brand, it takes time and money to develop. This is a major barrier to entry for other gold traders to replicate the ARY model, they don’t afford such a marketing exercise. ARY had the right idea at the right time and stuck with it.

‘Swiss’ is another brand of gold which is not local, not readily available and therefore open to counterfeiting, but is the only other name associated with gold bars, ‘biscuits’ as they’re colloquially referred to here. This in turn gives ARY an added layer of authenticity and preference.

In the absence of trustworthy gold traders, people turn to the few branded and reliable sellers. ARY stands out with their branded gold bars featuring a scannable QR code, assuring customers of their gold’s purity and authenticity.

Profit asked Atiya Zaidi, Managing Director and Executive Creative Director of BBDO Pakistan, to explain ARY’s branding strategy. “ARY hasn’t done anything novel. It may be unprecedented in Pakistan, but globally even precious metals and gems have been branded. Take Tiffany & Co., for instance; research indicates that women’s heart rates escalate just by looking at those infamous tiny blue boxes!”

From a marketing perspective, ARY has essentially undertaken category development. “ARY accomplished this feat because it is already a renowned brand. Everyone is cognizant of it due to their media channels. They are reputed for veracity when it comes to news. So, ARY is not merely a gold brand or a jewellery store; it is a house of brands with an established image and reputation,” Zaidi shared.

Merchant had a similar response: “Purely from a branding perspective, when you want to engender trust with a product, you affix a brand name to it, which is precisely what ARY did. They have been doing it since 2000-2001. As ARY established its brand and became a household name, they were able to augment their premium.”

“If you go to Dubai, no one will consider ARY gold to be the preeminent choice but gold from other brands, like Swiss, will be readily available and they levy an even higher premium than ARY. So, this phenomenon of ARY gold is specific to Pakistan because there aren’t many options to procure authentic gold,” Merchant concluded.

When asked why other gold traders have failed to brand their gold, Zaidi informed that previously gold did not necessitate branding because it would sell regardless. “Gold is perpetually in demand. You need advertisements where there is surplus supply and you need to engender demand for it. Gold is already in such high demand since it is an integral part of our culture that no one felt the need to brand it.”

Merchant echoed this assertion by saying: “Branding is costly. Brand building requires investment consistently over a time along, with lucid vision and positioning. ARY couldn’t levy the same premium as today 20 years ago. So you cannot simply commence charging a premium, without investing years of effort and money into it to first establish trust.”

Now that there is a need for branded gold because people are desperate but sceptical about what they are buying there is just one credible seller resulting in the current shortage of authentic gold bars in the market.

Zaidi highlighted that, “Gold traders will need to brand their gold, like ARY did, when the market is stagnant and they will need to engender demand. Then everyone will concentrate on brand building and advertising.”

Caught in a treacherous double bind, Pakistanis are desperately seeking to safeguard their savings from the rapidly depreciating rupee. But as the market’s dollars vanish before their very eyes, they are confronted with an insurmountable obstacle: The alarming decline in their ability to acquire authentic gold bars. The chaos of the current economic downturn engulfs them all in its deadly vortex of despair and hopelessness, leaving them reeling and gasping for air. n