TEHRAN: Nearly 350 million U.S. dollars’ worth of Iranian hand-woven carpets were exported in the past Iranian year ending on March 20, up 27 percent year on year, the Financial Tribune daily reported on Wednesday. More than 84 million dollars’ worth of carpets were exported to the United States, up from 2.7 million dollars the year before, according to Hamid Kargar, head of Iran’s National Carpet Center. Meanwhile, about 164 million dollars’ worth of carpets were exported from Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province in the past Iranian year, according to Nasser Avishan, the head of East Azarbaijan Industries, Mining and Trade Organization’s Carpet Department.
Export destinations included Germany, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Pakistan, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, England and South Africa, he said. “With the U.S. sanctions gone, we’re increasing our exports,” he was quoted as saying. In the same period, some 275,000 carpet weavers were directly involved in the industry in East Azerbaijan which is the world’s hub of hand-woven carpets, Avishan said. To boost the industry, effective measures should be adopted in this province, he added. Iran’s carpet exports were hit hard by sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear program over the past years, as the United States, the biggest importer of Iran’s carpets, banned the import of them, among other products, in September 2010.
