Industry Minister Nematzadeh said Iran’s exports of hand-woven carpets to the US was $84mn in the previous year indicating a significant growth compared to the figure for the year before which only stood at $2.7mn.
During a visit to Iran National Carpet Center, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh pointed to the President’s order on boosting production and employment saying “over the past year, great efforts were made to connect the Iranian industry to the global one including international contracts in the auto industry which need to be extended to other fields like the carpet industry.”
He said carpet exports suffered poor conditions during sanction years stating “the process has been fortunately facilitated though all barriers faced by producers and exporters need to be removed.”
“Unique features of Persian hand-woven carpet offer great opportunities for sustainable production and employment,” highlighted Nematzadeh adding “the knowledge for production of Iranian carpets needs to be transferred to the younger generations as well as that local markets should become strengthened in line with exports.”
He deemed it as necessary to hold business and commercial courses for carpet weavers; “inscribing Persian hand-woven carpets on the national and international lists of cultural heritage proves valuable only when it prevents fraud and increases exports.”
“Increased value added in manufacturing carpets should be the main priority in order to promote economy, production and employment as well as to make successful and dynamic presence in international markets,” he concluded.
Also during the visit, Head of Iran National Carpet Center Hamid Karegar said 350 million dollar of Iranian hand-woven carpets were deployed to various countries.
“America, Germany, Lebanon, UAE, Pakistan, Japan, Britain, Qatar, South Africa and Australia were the top ten costumers of Persian carpet in the previous year with the American taking the lead in imports of the product from Iran,” he continued.