A total of $50 million worth of hand-woven carpets were exported in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), registering a 90% decline compared with the previous year.
In fact, last year was the worst in decades for Iranian carpet industry, according to the CEO of the National Association for Handmade Carpet Producers Cooperatives.
“This decrease in exports has many reasons, the main ones being US sanctions as well as the obligation set by the Central Bank of Iran for traders to repatriate the foreign currency gained from exports, which in turn significantly increases the risk of trade and discourages exporters,” Abdollah Bahrami was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
The official added that CBI has imposed this regulation on hand-woven carpets, a strategic Iranian product in the field of non-oil exports, and the officials responsible for making this decision must now be held accountable for all the losses suffered by the industry.
As per the directive devised in the wake of a currency crisis in Iran, the government obliged all exporters to repatriate their foreign currency yields into the economic cycle of the country.
The move is aimed at boosting strained currency reserves in the short run, under increasingly harsh conditions. But it has understandably received negative feedback from private sector players.
“Up until two decades ago, the country used to earn more than $1.5 billion from handmade carpet exports, but today, we have lost our position as the world’s biggest carpet exporter. It is well known nowadays that when you lose an export market, you can’t easily take it back,” Bahrami said.
According to the association’s CEO, the UAE, China, Germany and South American nations were the main customers of Iranian hand-woven carpets last year.
Fereshteh Dastpak, the former head of Iran National Carpet Center, said in December that plans are underway to establish a barter system to trade Persian hand-woven carpets for other commodities.
She said China, a major buyer of Persian handmade carpets, had expressed its readiness to use such a system to import Iranian carpets in exchange for subway wagons.
Sweden and Russia reportedly offered to trade Iranian carpets for a range of other commodities.
“Handmade carpets have always been among the top three non-oil export commodities of Iran even through the worst years experienced by the country's economy. They are deemed Iran’s second flag and a symbol of Iranian identity and culture,” she said.
