By Faiza Tehseen ISLAMABAD, Feb. 10 (INP-WealthPK): Hair trade, both of humans and animals, is a growing industry worldwide. High quality raw, combed or carded (animal hair) and combed or salon-cut (human hair) are highly valued in the market as these are used for multi-industrial purposes such as preparing food items, colour pigment, head wigs, weaving fabric, tress making, cleaning up oil spills, furniture stuffing, artwork, insect killing, and twining ropes. The market size of wool and animal hair trade is growing by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5%. In 2019, only the animal hair trade was the 998^th most traded product worldwide. The total traded volume was $588 million, representing 0.0032% of total trade. It is projected that only the market size of hair extensions (made of human or animal hair) will increase from $2.38 billion in 2021 to $3.43 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 5.3%. Rates of the types of animal hair in unprocessed form in the international market are shown in the following chart:

No.	Animal	Type	Colour	Rate per Kg
1	Badger	Unprocessed	Natural	US$20 to US$21
2	Goat	Unprocessed	Nature white	US$5 to US$15
3	Goat	Dyed	Black	US$5 to US$15
4	Cow (Tail)	Unprocessed	Nature white	US$ 5 to US$ 10
5	Sheep	Unprocessed	Nature white	US$5 to US$15
6	Horse hair (tail & mane)	Unprocessed	Natural	US$5 to US$15
7	Horse hair (tail & mane)	Unprocessed	Natural black	US$7 to US$15

  According to World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solutions (WITS), in 2019 Pakistan was one of the largest human hair exporters as it traded at least 1,377,670 kilogrammes worth over $1.670 million. China is a good market for Pakistan’s exports of human hair. According to the ministry of commerce, during the last few years, Pakistan has sold at least 100,000 kilogrammes of human hair worth over $105 million to China. Mostly, Pakistan exports human hair to China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. According to the first schedule of customs tariff, Pakistan trades in human hair (unworked, whether or not washed or scored and wasted) under HS code 0501.0000, and animal hair (pigs, hogs or boars, bristles & hair, badger hair and other brush making hair including waste of such bristles or hair) under the HS code 0502.1000. Women’s hair trade is a valuable source of income in Pakistan as good quality hair is sold from Rs4,000 to Rs7,000 per kilogramme. Sometimes, hair of extraordinary quality is sold at Rs10,000 per kg in the local market and at Rs15,000 per kg in the international market. Pakistan exports wool, fine or coarse animal hair, horse hair yarn and woven fabric to the following countries.

No.	Trade commodity	HS code	Country	Export value in Thousand US$.	Share in %
1	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	Afghanistan	US$746,000	33%
2	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	UAE	US$515,000	22%
3	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	China	US$496,000	21%
4	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	USA	US$126,000	5.59%
5	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	UK	US$82,000	3.65%
6	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	Tunisia	US$80,000	3.56%
7	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	KSA	US$74,000	3.31%
8	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	Germany	US$31,000	1.39%
9	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	Indonesia	US$27,000	1.2%
10	Wool, fine or coarse animal hair; horsehair yarn and woven fabric.	51	Lithuania	US$21,000

  Under the commodity group 51, Pakistan exported wool, fine or coarse animal hair, horsehair and women fabric worth $2.26 million in 2020. But sales under this group decreased by 17.3% compared to 2019 when the exports were worth $2.73 million. The overall share of commodity group 51’s export was 0.01% in overall export commodities in 2020. Exports and imports concerning commodity group 51 from 2009 to 2020 are shown in the following chart: Collection of fine quality animal hair and wool should be given the status of a cottage industry, especially in the areas, where farmers rear animals like camel, yak, angora, and Tibetan sheep, to not only help them supplement their incomes, but also enable the country to produce large quantities of exportable product. The livestock farmers must also be given training in sheering and processing animal hair.