About $314 million worth of carpets were exported during the first ten months of the current Iranian year (ends March 20), registering a 14% rise in value as well as 34% rise in volume of exports, head of Iran’s National Carpet Center (INCC) Hamid Kargar said on Friday, IRNA reported. The official lamented that the so-called ‘subsidy reform plan’, implemented by the previous administration, has had a negative impact on the domestic carpet industry. “Paying cash subsidies to carpet weavers, particularly in rural areas, has led to reduced productivity in the sector,” he said, suggesting the carpet weavers’ wages to be increased in a bid to improve the quality of the hand-made carpets. Announcing that Iran has outperformed China, its former competitor, in the export of hand-woven carpets, Kargar said: “China is currently the eighth importer of Iranian hand-woven rugs.” Iran accounts for more than 25% of the world’s hand-woven carpet market. As many as 2.3 million people are directly involved in the domestic carpet industry.
