Executive Summary

Pakistan is home to huge reserves of marble and also has rare marble reserves but this sector is dominated by small players and until recently the government had not paid much attention to this sector. Marble industry of Pakistan contributes negligible amount to the world marble trade and suffers because of the out-dated blasting technique being used to extract the marble. Also this industry has been highly affected by the energy crisis, war on terror, political instability and tribal feuds. Marble mosaic is a value added product made out of marble waste and is highly demanded product internationally. The local market for this product is not very developed but there is a great potential as there is a construction boom in the country. Currently there are very few players in the market who deal with marble mosaic and almost the entire product that they are manufacturing is being exported to the Middle East. The following report gives an overview of this sector locally and internationally along with a critical analysis of various stakeholders in the marble mosaic chain. For the research phase, tools provided by UNIDO were used along with some questionnaires developed in house. These tools helped in identifying the information gaps that prevailed and it was found that there is a severe dearth of data especially the updated facts and figures regarding marble industry. Along with the analysis, recommendations have also been given on how each actor of the value-chain can develop this sector more. This report also seeks to incorporate women into the marble mosaic value-chain as the product can be made at home and has very high profit margins. For this purpose a gender analysis has been done and recommendations have been given on how more women can be brought into the value chain and what policies will facilitate this process.