Pakistani tent and blankets manufacturers say they are operating at “more than full capacity” as they cater to the demands of earthquake victims in Turkiye and Syria as well as millions displaced by last year’s cataclysmic floods in Pakistan.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of Turkiye and Syria on February 6, killing over 50,000 in the former while an estimated 6,000 in the latter. Pakistan is one of the leading countries that have sent food, winterized tents, blankets and other relief items for the two countries’ earthquake victims.
The South Asian country is the leading producer and exporter of high-quality tents that include camping tents, relief tents, military tents, and event tents. The National Tent House (NTH), Pakistan’s largest tent manufacturing facility, is supplying aid products to global humanitarian agencies, which include the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC).
Mohammad Ahmed, director of business development at NTH, told Arab News that the manufacturer has so far supplied over 15,000 tents and more than 200,000 blankets for the earthquake victims of Turkiye and Syria from manufacturing facilities in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Karachi. He said NTH can produce up to 2,000 tents and an estimated 20,000 blankets per day.
“Our annual tent production capacity is 600,000 tents and 6.2 million blankets and at present, we are operating at more than the full capacity because of the [Turkiye and Syria] earthquake and floods in Pakistan,” Ahmed told Arab News.
