Global handwoven carpet exports amounted to 1 billion dollars in 2019, according to figures that show Iran could secure a 7.9-percent share in the market.
Some 95 countries have been trading under tariff number 5701, including any type of carpet. But only eight countries; namely, Iran, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Turkey, China, and Afghanistan, have been active in handwoven carpet trading.
While global exports in handwoven carpets hit 1.459 billion dollars in 2016, the number has been decreasing continually in recent years.
Iran had a share of 7.9 percent in the handwoven carpet exports market in 2019 when India was the top exporter with a 31.7 percent share, followed by Egypt with 18.2 percent.
Iran was in third place and Nepal with 6.5 percent, Pakistan with 6.2 percent, Turkey with 4.7 percent, and China with 3.8 percent secured next places.
Head of Iran’s Nation Carpet Center Farahnaz Rafe’ told IRNA on Monday that Iran’s handwoven carpet production saw a 34-percent increase in the first 10 months of last Persian year (March 20, 2020-January 21, 2021).
Rafe said that 1,869,304 square meters of handwoven carpet were woven in Iran in that period while the figure for the same period in the previous year was 1,231,321 square meters, SHATA news reported.
42 percent of carpets manufactured were commercial, 19 percent thick-knot, 16 percent subtle-know and wool, 9 percent tapestry, 8 percent Gabbeh, and 6 percent full-silk carpets, according to Rafe’.
She added that 10,140 business units are active in the handmade carpet industry in Iran, among which 2,787 are centralized workshops, 7,256 non-centralized workshops, and 97 are great carpet weaving complexes.
By and large, 12,625 business units in this area have made 191,545 jobs, said Rafe’.
She had previously said that the coronavirus pandemic made many craftspeople who had left the carpet industry return and this caused the production of hand-woven carpets to grow 400 percent.